Review by Michael Meyerhofer
OCTOPUS
by Tom Hunley
Logan House Press
Route 1 Box 154
Winside, NE 68790
ISBN – 978-0-9769935-3-7
2008, 80 pp., $12.00
www.loganhousepress.com
Tom Hunley’s Octopus is the kind of book that feels like the poet had just as much fun writing it as I had reading it. For me, a book of poetry has to pass the dog-ear test before I consider it one of my favorites; Octopus passed that test with ease. Here is a poet of sharp wit, integrity, and bittersweet intellect. He is also a fine craftsman of sharp imagery.
For example, in “Release,” Hunley gives voice to a captured rainbow trout: “I’m no wall trophy. / Let me go.” The poem goes on to mention Cho Seung Hoi, responsible for the infamous murders at Virginia Tech, but does so with poignant grace and respect, merely describing: “32 orange and white balloons / lifted up, launched into the night” (40).
