It’s about Time

Barry Wallenstein’s poetry, from his first book in 1977 to now, addresses his awareness of time’s swift passing. The poems continue this time-honored theme and its attendant thoughts and emotions. Now in his eighth decade this theme is paramount. While time is explicitly central in the first and eighth sections, other sections speak of desire, music, current events, creatures of all sizes and states of mind. Poems in each of the groups reflect the anxieties of our current period including references to the ongoing pandemic and quarantine, as well as overriding reflections on temporality. These poems also are full of appreciation and gratitude for life’s bounty. While avoiding the ＂personal＂ or autobiographical, Wallenstein’s emotional life is more apparent here than in his work of the past.