Review: Time Travel: A Poet Revisits the Past
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 11, 2012
Glenn K. Currie has an uncanny way of taking us back in time to our childhoods, only instead of fictional stories he speaks to us in free verse poems that distill the very essence of what it felt like when we were going through this period in our own lives. Part of the gentility of his writing comes from the fact that he is obviously a very intelligent man (esteemed graduate of Dartmouth 1965 - then off to the Navy (and probably Vietnam like most of us at that time), then postgraduate courses at Michigan State, Georgetown and even Oxford! Serving his time in corporate America and traveling on assignments to them Middle East etc (he is a journalist, writer, and poet) he now is settled in New England where he writes wonderful books like this one.His first foray in re-living the past was A Boy's First Diary that recreated his fourth grade growth.  Now we advance with him to SURVIVING SEVENTH GRADE and those first spurts of androgen pepper these pages in a most entertaining and at times hilarious way. On the coverleaf he drops this little note:You need to understand,That homework is there to make you miserable,Gym is there to make sure you stay miserable,And French teaches you miserable in another language.And then we walk through almost a year of how it feels to be in the seventh grade and the best way to share how fine Currie writes is to give some examples:BRYLCREEMAll the cool kids put Brylcreem in their hairIt's supposed to make them look "debonair,'"But they leave a trail of greaseEverywhere they go.They're always running combsAnd their hands through their hair,The stuff gets all overDoorknobs, desks, and lockers.In the ads, they show a beautiful girlRunning her handsThrough the hair of some guyWho looks like he just survived an oil spill.I always wonder where she puts her handsAfter she rubs his head.I guess it doesn't make any differenceIf she's cute enough.I tried it once but no one rubbed my head.I didn't know what to do with my greasy comb.I finally rubbed it off on Snobby Donna's back,When we were in a crowd.And toward the end of the book, which seems like toward the end of the school year and a little closer to puberty, Currie offers the following:MENSTRUATIONYikes! I finally found outWhat menstruation is.No wonder girlsAre always cranky.Nobody would tell meSo I asked Mom.She's the only one around hereWho knows anything.She also said there's somethingCalled menopause.I don't understand what "men"Have to do with all this stuff.Men get blamed for everything.This reader sincerely hopes that Glenn K. Currie keeps his time machine oiled and will take us back to those memories that now and then need poking. He puts things into perspective and he is a tremendously sensitive observer/rememberer! Grady Harp, December 12