Many thanks to David Rullo of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. You can read his review of Time and the River here or by scrolling down.
Don’t forget to order your copy here, leave a review, or even suggest that your local library get a copy.
Time and the River is a historical poetry collection for the ages… [The book] is comprised of 52 poems, covering various historical guideposts, including Iron Age burials, Israelite prophets, the Cold War, Columbine, Michelangelo and Shakespeare, to name a few.
Taken as a whole, the collection accomplishes what Thomas Wolfe’s main character attempts in a novel sharing a title with Miller’s work: it finds meaning, belonging and direction in the world. The search crosses millennia and epochs, identifying new ways to connect with topics one might more often expect to find in Ph.D. dissertations than poetry collections.
Miller opens the book with “Dylan Klebold’s Crush,” and while many might have trouble identifying with a mass shooter, most readers will have no problem making a connection with a high school girl who was the crush of a boy whose two paths have taken vastly different turns in life. Similarly, in “Merlin,” Miller twists the camera’s focus from Camelot or Guinevere, recycled so often in myth and fantasy, to a man contemplating the passage of time and his body.
Scattered throughout the collection are several poems with Jewish themes. In “Europe, 1941-1945,” Miller writes about the Holocaust, and the writing is as plaintive and filled with emotion as much of the work written in literature that has contemplated the tragedy and human expense of the 6 million murdered. “Ezekiel” takes a personal look at the prophet, who is “broken-hearted at forty-three… I am white-chested at forty-three… I am forty-three and tired of memory.” Thoughts more expected to be spoken by a father who has weathered the storms of everyday life than one of the most significant biblical prophets. Moses, Jacob and Abraham are all portrayed in similar ways – as men and people rather than religious patriarchs who may be difficult for some to identify.
And that, perhaps, is the hidden trick of Miller’s book and poetry: He makes us identify and care about subjects and people far outside our current lens.
In Time and the River, Miller hasn’t written a collection of poetry that will be pulled out for specific holidays and then tucked away for the remaining 364 days each year. Instead, he’s done what good poets do: crafted interesting poems that make one ponder the state of man and his or her place in the world. It’s a worthy read that deserves to be added to anyone’s poetry shelf.
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