The Dream Songs

Poetry is not really my “thing” when I think of picking up a book to read, but The Dream Songs by John Berryman was surprisingly a great venue for me to further my appreciation of such writing.   The book contains 385 poems whose format becomes familiar to the reader as the book progresses, with three stanzas in each with six lines per stanza.  At first the poetry reader, in this case me!, is very confused by the poetry.  Are the poems connected?  What is the running theme(s)?  Who is Henry?  Why so much pain? And then a deeper yearning to learn about Henry, aka Mr. Bones, as referred to by his anonymous friend.  Henry is an early middle aged white man, who decides to be in blackface (like in a minstrel show) and has struggles in love, religion, boredom with life, and vision in his dreams.  There are moments of laughter, his eating problem which leads to his gastro issues, and then to his deeper moments of dealing with loss and the struggle of man to understand what is life all about.  Henry questions suffering and morality of man and then introduces famous lines from children’s poetry, almost like how our own brain functions, as I look out my office window in Washington Square Park and let my mind wander to the “who,” the “what,” and the “how” of life.  Taken as single moments and thoughts tied together by this questioning man come together in an uncomforting way.  One particular poem captures the essence of the confusion:

All the world like a woolen lover
once did seem on Henry's side.
Then came a departure.
Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought.
I don't see how Henry, pried
open for all the world to see, survived

Berryman’s work is masterful, capturing wit, “true gut experiences,” and honesty on the challenge of emotion and feeling.  There is an emotional power contained in the poems that spoke to me as reader, but more to me as a man who thinks through this confusion of everyday life.  I wish I was this brilliant.  Take in small sections.  Moving in so many ways.  Add to your list!