In an introduction to “When Stuff Is Not Enough,” Michael West’s latest poetry collection, the author lists an impressive number of jobs he’s held. They range from dishwasher and housepainter to college professor and industry analyst/strategy consultant. With three collections preceding “When Stuff Is Not Enough,” he needs to add poet.
Mr. West describes himself as “not a spiritual seeker but a finder of things that signify the spirit in the moment, any moment, every moment all at once.” Yet as a poet he is a true seeker — of a precise image, an ironic allusion, a bit of humor, a celebration of the extraordinary in the ordinary. These are the bread and butter of a working poet.
In his opening poem “Enough?”, he describes the mundane details of his life, then says, “Still I yearn. Why? Isn’t this simple life enough?” These, and questions of what he should let in or let out, launch “When Stuff Is Not Enough.” They illustrate the minimalist style that characterizes his work and set up his explorations of the world.
Mr. West draws on a variety of sources for inspiration, but he relies most strongly on Eastern belief systems and poets. The titles of the next four poems after “Enough?” all refer to Buddhist poets he has come across in his readings on Buddhism and Taoism during the last seven years. For instance, Japanese Waka poet Kido Chitate inspires “After Kido,” an elegantly compressed poem that takes the sound of bamboo as its subject. “After Wang Wei” draws on the work of a Tang dynasty Chinese poet to meditate on silence, a theme that Mr. West returns to again and again in this collection. The poem “Silence” provides another example.
The tone shifts abruptly in a series of poems about relationships. “Marriage” dances with a lively, tongue-in-cheek humor as the poet compares “a sexy beast” to “monkey climbing/ Puzzle tree.” “Pretty Lies” voices a lover’s lament where he compares a partner’s lies to the grain alcohol Everclear 190. In “Contemplation,” death is compared to “that final mortgage payment on the summer house/Or world peace.”
Allusions to the natural world are never far away. A series of haiku, the Japanese form traditionally associated with nature, addresses a range of subjects from rain and oak branches to lotus ponds and deer. Particularly compelling is “plastic bag/caught in a branch/leafless tree,” a distinctive image most of us can appreciate. “Island Winter” celebrates the snow-bound Vineyard in “a swirling of snowflakes defining the wind.”
Mr. West saves for last a longer poem that gives this collection its title. A riff on a peacock starts a series of riffs on places he has visited, the pleasures of being at home, thoughts about smiling and laughter — all packaged with random rhymes and a satisfying end: “I forgot myself I forgot my stuff.” The reader who samples “When Stuff Is Not Enough” will find much to enjoy, and much to think about.