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4.0
The poems in Matthew Rohrer's collection A Green Light are a cerebral experience in their use and exploration of the limits of the imagination. They feel written by a poet with the reader in mind the way a teacher keeps their student in mind, or a puzzle maker the puzzle solver. They challenge writer and reader to meet somewhere in their consciousness, where imaginations touch and overlap.
The poems can feel random and untethered if you aren't paying attention to repeated words, colors, or lines. Consecutive poems are typically connected by these repetitions the way thoughts are connected in our stream of consciousness. I was on the lookout for "green" and "light" as per the title, and I found them in trees and nature, in sparks and heavenly bodies. I also found it in the motion of the poems, the green light that tells you to move forward or gives you permission for action or in this case, permission to go along for the ride.
Keeping with the theme of cognition, some poems discuss types of mind control and brainwashing like religion, white supremacy, eugenics, and there's a series titled "MK Ultra" which references the CIA's mind control program. Certain images and word choices bring to mind drug use or insanity, and it feels a little too easy to write these poems off as manic or intoxicated experiences, to say "He must've been high when he wrote this." But that shows a lack of awareness of one's own thoughts or thought processes.
The collection is also dotted with self-referential humor, a willingness to not take oneself too seriously. The poet sometimes achieves this by changing perspectives and POV making the work not only an exercise in thought but in empathy as well. Can you see what someone else sees and thereby feel what they feel or vice versa?
The poems can feel random and untethered if you aren't paying attention to repeated words, colors, or lines. Consecutive poems are typically connected by these repetitions the way thoughts are connected in our stream of consciousness. I was on the lookout for "green" and "light" as per the title, and I found them in trees and nature, in sparks and heavenly bodies. I also found it in the motion of the poems, the green light that tells you to move forward or gives you permission for action or in this case, permission to go along for the ride.
Keeping with the theme of cognition, some poems discuss types of mind control and brainwashing like religion, white supremacy, eugenics, and there's a series titled "MK Ultra" which references the CIA's mind control program. Certain images and word choices bring to mind drug use or insanity, and it feels a little too easy to write these poems off as manic or intoxicated experiences, to say "He must've been high when he wrote this." But that shows a lack of awareness of one's own thoughts or thought processes.
The collection is also dotted with self-referential humor, a willingness to not take oneself too seriously. The poet sometimes achieves this by changing perspectives and POV making the work not only an exercise in thought but in empathy as well. Can you see what someone else sees and thereby feel what they feel or vice versa?
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