Survivable World

By Ron Mohring

     Some think that poetry at its best is a lugubrious affair. Survivable World by Ron Mohring might be a book of poetry they would point to as support of their theory. It is, to be sure, mournful. It is exquisite, cut-to-the-bone emotion.

     But Survivable World it is also an affirmation, a reflection and, indeed, even though homosexuality is at its root (a foundation many of us would think we could not relate to) one of its splendors is that the author makes "compels"us to see how identical our souls are no matter our gender. When it comes to the essentials "love and death" this book of poetry will tie us one to another.

    One poem,"The Woman Who Cleans the Men's Room," surprised me by being one of my favorites. It is full of degradation, desperation. Through it I, who live high on my suburban hill, glimpse a world I might have imagined but only palely, poorly. This, then, is Ron Mohring's gift. He makes us see what we otherwise would not, could not. It is a magnificent undertaking.