John Freeman

William Carlos Williams wrote on prescription pads. Wallace Stevens gave his poems to a secretary at Hartford Accident and Insurance, who typed them up. Poets work with what they've got--and in David Tucker's case, that probably means a reporter's notepad.

Tucker's poetic debut, "Late for Work," bears all the hallmarks of his newspapering life (currently, he's an assistant managing editor at The Newark Star-Ledger). Poems come bearing titles like "Morning edition" or "A Book Review," and sing the praises of that sweet spot between deadlines.

"Kingdom of Laziness" imagines a world with no tick-tock, where "yawns come loose/from your intentions." And "Voice Mail" sounds like every newspaper employee's fantasy: "You want to leave a message... Leave one... If he ever gets back, that is, and I'm not saying/that he will ever come back or that/he hasn't been killed in a bar fight in Mexico/where for some years he has lived another life/filled with verse and drunken episodes."

In the volume's second section, Tucker eases back on the wordplay and adopts a more ruminative tone to evoke a father's hometown loyalty, a mother's mental illness. The quilt of his past is rich, but not stifled by nostalgia. Tucker never forgets this is art, not therapy. The collection's finest poem, "The Brief Life of the Box," turns into a beautiful homage to Stevens' classic, "Anecdote of the Jar," but Tucker's version pivots around a box that is made to hold the poet's entire childhood.

This is very strong work--clearly Tucker has taken his time. Perhaps there was no deadline for this moonlight work, just pleasure. Occasionally, Tucker gets decadent, runs away with a metaphor--fashions something flashy and sets it afloat on a current of easy chuckles. "Late for Work" reveals he's earned a right to do this--the chance, for once, to let it rip. To be not just the bearer of our morning bulletin, but the news itself.

"Late for Work: Poems"

David Tucker

Houghton Mifflin, 53 pages, $12

(2006-04-04)

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Rush Hour
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