Wild Strawberries by Eric Greinke. (Pressa Press., 96 pgs.) $15.00

This book collects fifty-nine of Grienke's poems written over the past few years and are the poetic equivalent to chocolate Hershey Kisses in that these poems are short and sweet but with a big, flavor that lingers on the tongue long after they are read. The poems all deal, in one way or another, with nature — man's place in nature and struggle with and rejoicing of, and how both man and nature are transfigured by the experience:

"Coming across them
Unexpectedly, as
A child they
Taste as fresh
As red. Hard
To collect enough
To bring home
For jam, so we
Eat them while we can."
("Wild Strawberries")

Other poems equally surprise and delight. His prose poem, "Kayak Lesson," for example could just as easily be seen as a poetry writing lesson: "Momentum will continue after you stop paddling, but the wind may turn you in a circle. You will have to get yourself straight by digging deep, making every stroke count."

As a poet, Grienke is hard to pin down. His poems are imagistic with touches of surrealism, but he's not really an imagist or a surrealist in the purest sense. I found more than a passing kinship with magic realism in his poems but, again, he's not a magic realist. Rather, Greinke is very much his own exotic animal.Wild Strawberries is a triumph for poet, Eric Greinke and a gift to readers of poetry everywhere.

— reviewed by JCE