, Pointeau shares impressions and stains of that trip. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Our nation owns a unique tradition of literary wandering. Being no stranger to the road myself, I found this collection engaging. After decades of living out of highway-exit motels (during the best of times) and inner-city soup kitchens (in the worst), it was refreshing to see the morning horizon through the eyes of a less worn, less faded traveler of the word. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
At ninety-four pages and illustrated with the bold work of Brian Wootan, Songs of the Rollin Chateau<\/em> is a quick journey \u2026 the first time you read it\u2014but you\u2019ll want to revisit these poems and appreciate the ways they dovetail with and inform each other. I recommend reading these poems in the order presented by Pointeau, as the book presents them as a linear discovery of both personal and universal insights. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Pointeau lets readers know, from the beginning, that this sojourn will be one presented through rich imagery. The first time we encounter the message of \u201cHit the road, son,\u201d we know that subtlety and nuance have been left at home: <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to take that road
\n that never, never, ending winding black ribbon \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The rich images served up by pieces such as \u201cSongs of the journey\u201d and \u201cAmerica\u201d remind us all that \u201c\u2026 this is a big country \u2026\u201d The stark reality and confrontation visited in poems such as \u201cPitchforks,\u201d \u201cRevolution,\u201d and \u201cDoubt\u201d are offset with the simple, real, sometimes self-effacing, humor of the recurrent \u201cSongs of paranoia\u201d and the shielded eroticism of \u201cShelter atop a mountain.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Along the way, mundane events like sharing a motel bed with your dog and taking showers at truck stops are told as more; each poem is magnified by the next until, keeping the focus always ahead, rearview mirrors serve no use, all that matters is what comes next, up ahead, with the next sunrise or cup of roadside coffee. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The important thing is to keep driving. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Fran\u00e7ois Pointeau reminds us in \u201cFor now\u201d that life is a continuum, and that the road ahead, always ahead, is a journey, not a destination. <\/span><\/span>Pointeau joins in the tribe of travel and allows us all a hitchhiker\u2019s hope, a rubber-tramp\u2019s perspective, and a gasoline powered rediscovery of ourselves. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
This is not Neal Cassady, frantically chasing the next set of kicks, nor is it an idealized celebration of freedom\u2019s excesses, milked from a red ragtop through the Mojave. Songs of the Rollin Chateau <\/em>is one man\u2019s quest to connect with the permanence of meaning and geographic solidity, within a constantly changing social landscape. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The North American highway has always been as good a place as any to discover yourself, and if I ever meet up with Fran\u00e7ois, out there \u201con the road,\u201d I hope we have the time to compare notes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Review of Fran\u00e7ois Pointeau’s second poetry collection<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[870,813,830,886],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lonestarindiereview","tag-lone-star-literary-life","tag-lonestarliterarycom","tag-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}