REVIEW Poet's collection reveals whimsy, truth of his life

Andrew Hudgins weaves unique emotions and characters into his poetry.
By THERESA M. HEGEL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
"Ecstatic in the Poison," by Andrew Hudgins (The Overlook Press, $24.95)
"Ecstatic in the Poison," a slim volume of poetry by Andrew Hudgins, is an eclectic mix of humor, reminiscence, poignancy and even some whimsy.
The collection's title is taken from its first poem "In" and is part of a description of children chasing after a "fog truck," which was spraying DDT on a suburban street. That poem is a good example of how Hudgins finds beauty in the unbeautiful and transcendence among life's horrors and pains.
Another poem that delves into the beauty of something normally considered repellent is "Grandma's Toenails." The youthful narrator is fascinated by his grandmother's toenails, which he describes as "thick, yellow with dirty light" and "humped and buckled on calluses." He compares them to "quartz, topaz, almost amber." To the narrator, the rough and damaged toenails represent his grandmother's lifetime of hard work and love.
"Silver" juxtaposes memories of polishing the good silver with his mother with his mother's death years later. The blue of the silver polish on his mother's hands foreshadows her "blue lips" when she is withering on her death bed. His mother is "pressed in navy velvet" in her coffin, in much the same way the silverware was "pressed and canopied in navy velvet."
Whimsical and light-hearted
Not all of Hudgins' poems are so serious or personal in nature. Poems such as "A Joke Walks into a Bar" and "Flamingoes Have Arrived in Ashtabula" are more light-hearted and whimsical in nature. In "A Joke Walks into a Bar," a joke itself is personified and trudges wearily through overused setups and stale punch lines until, at the end, he is able to find humor in his situation once more.
"Flamingoes Have Arrived in Ashtabula" explores the absurdities of flamingoes, in all their garish glory, landing in a less-than-colorful Ohio town.
"The Cadillac in the Attic" is an amusing sketch of a tenant who rebuilt an entire car in his attic and left it for his landlord to find and wonder about after he moved out.
Hudgins, a professor of English at Ohio State University, has written several other poetry collections. "Saints and Strangers" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, "After the Lost War" received the Poetry Prize and "The Never-Ending" was a finalist for the National Book Award. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Hudson Review, The Paris Review and elsewhere.
Hudgins' poems contain great insight and more than a few moments of brilliance. "Ecstatic in the Poison" is as erudite as it is lyrical.
hegel@vindy.com