The Bright House

The Bright House opens with memories of Greer’s life with George and Susan Garrett at their home in Maine. The ambiance of this collection is the mind of a boy trying to make sense of his troubled childhood and tormented parents. Other poems address such subjects as an evening spent with Richard Eberhart, Conrad Aiken’s deathbed quip, and a question to Bernard Malamud regarding the nature of God.

Ben Greer’s poems have a good bit of darkness in them, but they also have the high morale of articulate honesty. In any case, they are admirably made. This book is a worthy tribute to George Garrett and to another advisor and advocate of his work, William Jay Smith. A list of the successful poems in The Bright House would be almost as long as the table of contents. Let me mention only
Fugitive,
a perfect little poem that addresses the guilt, fear, and feigning of every reader, yet gives him the release that bold truth can give. The book ends, as grateful readers would have it do, with a wedding anniversary poem full of the
round, floating notes
of joy. -Richard Wilbur

The best of these poems-and there are many-are scenes of inner struggle, uncompromising arguments with the self conducted with heart and wit. Ben Greer’s readers should feel privileged to be brought into such intimate contact with his search for an honest place to stand. -Billy Collins