Clocking Out
First published in Woodnotes #31, Autumn 1997, pages 45–46. On 7 February 2017, I found the handwritten text for this review
on a yellow piece of lined notepaper folded into quarters, tucked into my copy of the book, dated “25 December 1996, Winnipeg, Manitoba.”
Carlos Colón, also known as Haiku Elvis, died unexpectedly in October of 2016. See also “Remembering Carlos Colón.” +
Clocking Out by Carlos Colón. Shreveport, Louisiana: Tragg Publications, 1996, 54 pages, 5½ by 8½ inches, paperback. $4.00 postpaid from the author at 185 Lynn Avenue, Shreveport, Louisiana 71105-3523 [address no longer correct]. A playful spirit pervades Carlos Colón’s Clocking Out. In between the serious moments are sparks of lightness, all keenly observed, playfully seen. About a dozen visual or “concrete” poems add whimsy to this collection where poems (mostly haiku) appear spaciously at one per page. Colón shows great stylistic range not only with visual creativity but with one-liners, three-liners, “compressed” poems such as “eyexambiguoushapes,” and one tanka. While the poet’s playfulness is enjoyable, the more conventional haiku and senryu particularly resonate with keen observation, wry irony, humour, and sharp images. One or two poems see too light (“the lovebirds / a gaggle / of giggles”), but most of Carlos Colón’s poems here are movingly serious without taking themselves too seriously.
toweling off—
the cold nose
of a kitten
emptying the classrooms a triple rainbow
The following selections, in the order they appear in Clocking Out, were not part of my 1996 review, but I include them here to show additional example poems, starting with the following concrete poem I first published in Woodnotes. I recall asking Carlos if the image might be reversed, to show the cat walking to the left instead of the right (I’m not sure why I suggested that). He said that such a change wouldn’t work, because then the shape of the cat’s tail wouldn’t match the shape of the question marks. He was completely right.
???
? ? /\ /\
? (cat)
catcatcatcat
catcatcatcat
a a a a
t t t t
somewhere
on the Sgt.’s desk
a “Missing Person” report
zen concert—
an air guitar
slightly out of tune
guiltripenance
across the rice paper
the teacher gently
guides my hand
(for Marian Poe)
taking over
the editors mailbox:
haikudzu
harder to read—
the faded paint
on his “Work for Food” sign
next day across town
white sheets marching
on the clothesline
new translation—
the farmer gestures
with a rutabaga
chained to the desk
the shell
of a ballpoint pen
Labor Day—
fixing the hole
in my hammock
sound of a penny
dropped on a church pew—
ripples in the walnut
six k places i at t once t this e new n
taking my glasses
the optician disappears
into the wallpaper
pointing
my way home
the starfish