Review of alan finlay's pushing from the riverbank by Jim Wittenberg

pushing from the riverbank is a combination of poetry and prose poetry. The images are strong, and the wording is powerful. The poet, Alan Finlay, displays a childlike grasp that all of time exists in the present, and an affinity for elements of the surreal and absurdist.

Of particular note is the recurring relationship of father and son.In the poem, 'Shadows', the father explains the very real dangers the child will face in this world without diminishing the child's awareness of the dangers contained in shadows. In the title poem, 'pushing from the riverbank', the son crawls into bed beside his father to talk about the dangers that are awakened by the flushing of the toilet.

In some of the poems the viewpoint of parent and child are fluid and interchangeable. Be prepared to see things the way a child sees things.

Jim Wittenberg is a US poet and author of Haunt me in the morning, published by Graffiti Kolkata.