The title of Uninvited Guests, collection of poems penned by Donald Glazer ’66, was borrowed from the final line of the first poem contained therein. That poem, “Visitors,” serves to explain how every poem which follows “barge[d] right in” to Glazer’s mind at specific points in his life.
Each poem is a brief reflection on a moment of particular significance to Glazer. The highly specific focus of each of the poems allows for an especially vivid expression of the emotional experiences which inspired his writing. In the light of his recent and unfortunate passing just a few months ago, these poems offer an opportunity to gain meaningful insights into his life through some of his most significant personal thoughts.
The vicissitudes of Glazer’s relationships, chiefly (but not exclusively) his romantic ones, serve as the inspiration for much of his poetry. “You” discusses spending time with someone the speaker loves, and several other poems chronicle joyful experiences. However, a far more common focus was on moments of loss and pain. “Double Overtime” relays the experience of reflecting on a failed relationship after it has concluded. “First Blood” discusses the potential for the woman the speaker loves to use her knowledge of the speaker’s vulnerabilities to hurt him. “Muck” describes a buildup of unaddressed resentment within a relationship. Furthermore, the collection’s third section consists of poems written in response to the deaths of individuals Glazer knew. One of them, as described in “Davy Blumberg,” was only a child at the time he passed away.
The poems are short—only two exceed one page in length—but they are dense with vivid imagery. “1:00 AM” serves as an excellent example since it engages with sight, sound, and touch in several places across all nine of its lines. “Parting Ways I” uses a stamp as a metaphor, and it is easy for the reader to both visualize the stamp and connect with it. Everywhere in Glazer’s writing, his word choice is mindful of tone and connotative meanings in order to allow for his poems to be interpreted at multiple levels.
Glazer uses a range of creative metaphors. Some of the best poems in the collection are ones in which he develops an extended metaphor over the course of the poem. “Brambles” constructs an elaborate garden in order to communicate the dangers of being blinded by love. “Trying Again” uses a blister-causing hiking shoe to caution against falling back into familiar vices and unproductive behaviors.
In some cases, the title is indispensable to understanding the connection the body of the poem is attempting to draw. “Breaking Up” is one such poem, since its lines only discuss a microscope slide (the metaphor used to discuss moving beyond a relationship). The title of “Alone on Sunday Morning” imbues the verse which follows with an important sense of loneliness.
Glazer makes effective use of rhymes in most of his poems to connect key ideas. “For Michael and Elizabeth’s Wedding” chooses to mention two cities by name that rhyme (Boston and Houston) in order to emphasize certain connecting elements despite the great distance that separates them. “Midnight” is a poem which gives symbolic meaning to different sources of sounds audible late at night, and individual sources of sound are discussed in sections which rhyme.
“Desire” has three rhyming couplets which are intended to draw significant focus. However, it is disappointing that none of the poems follow a consistent rhyme scheme for the entire poem. Rhymes were placed where Glazer considered them appropriate, but he never set out to build an entire poem around a rhyme scheme. This prevented the sense of flow that more structured rhymes can afford. The poem with the most irregularly placed rhymes is “Nachum and Treini d. 1941,” which scatters the placement of its rhymes without any clear pattern across its four stanzas.
In general, many readers are likely to wish to see poems adhering to established formats, but they are unfortunately not present in this collection. The poem “Breaking Up” illustrates this frustrating tendency with exceptional clarity. It is an unrhymed, three-line poem which captures a moment in time, and it immediately gives the appearance of a haiku. This impression is broken when reading the poem reveals lines containing five, eight, and four syllables (as opposed to the 5/7/5 structure stipulated by the structure of a proper haiku). When conforming to the established standard would have only required moving a single syllable from the central to the final line, it strikes the reader as strange that it was not done.
While Glazer evidently felt unconstrained by established poetry formats, many other poems were carefully written with structures which complement the tone he pursues. The gradual increase in spacing between lines within his poem “Winter” captures a sleepy feeling of retreat associated with the eponymous season. The second stanza of “Dawn” forms a downward arrow which aids reflecting on the loss of dreams. “Family Therapy” includes a symmetrical structure in line length and syllable distribution which places the greatest emphasis on the first and last lines containing the events the other lines describe.
His use of striking contrasts is also both consistent and powerful. “Megan’s Bay” begins by contrasting a dry, formal reporting of the weather with the way he perceives it, and it ends with the speaker expressing his fundamental confusion about right and wrong since his understanding of the world was so radically challenged.
“Mirrors – Twentieth Reunion” and “1:00 AM” alternate between language suggesting youth and maturity. “You” includes a seeming paradox at the start which is central to the overall message. These contrasts interact with the surrounding poetic devices, and they are carefully woven into their surroundings.
Spending some time appreciating Glazer’s poetry is certainly worthwhile. The poems across the collection are consistently carefully and beautifully written. They are full of unique perspectives on familiar experiences, which makes them especially thought-provoking for a wide audience.
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