pendulum

Like the pendulum at the Lexington Public Library that demonstrates the rotation of the earth, these poems, written by Eric Sutherland in the guise of "Gatekeeper," measure and interpret lives in rotation, many of them "bruised souls" with whom he comes in contact, writing poems that explore conscience and the mechanics of the spirit. The trajectory of the pendulum knocks down pins as the earth rotates. The poet, imagining each life as a pin, is there to pick them up, in the process elevating all of us.

In the tradition of our most celebrated of epics, Eric Scott Sutherland's pendulum mutates a downtown library into a kind of underworld abyss seething with the refuse of humanity. Sutherland's Gatekeeper serves as witness, referee, and reluctant participant, and marks time by an immense pendulum swinging from the ceiling of the five-story rotunda. His deft portraits of library patrons compel us to join him until we too feel too close for our own sanity. With our noses already pressed against the glass of voyeurism, Sutherland beckons us closer still into this world until we find we are unable to look away or resist the notion that we too, belong.

The poems in this humane collection are hard and beautiful. They are hard, because the locals here are marginalized and somewhat lost, yet beautiful because they live with hope, and because each poem in this heartfelt book is accompanied by singing. Behind this cast of characters is the poet himself, a living spirit, capturing the human voice, swinging back and forth like the symbol evoked by the title of this honest and necessary collection. This is at once a portrait and a vision rendered into lines, notation for a place and time and the saintly people there. It is a gift to be in such able hands, and a further gift to turn the pages of their labor. Three cheers for this delight!