Limousine, Midnight Blue: Fifty Frames from the Zapruder Film by
Jamey Hecht
Pages: 66
Publisher: Red Hen Press
Released: 2009
Dog Eared Review by Lindsey Lewis Smithson
I am late to the game with this one- I found it buried in a pile
of books I was organizing after my most recent move- and that is all the worse
for me. This collection of sonnets is so so so worth your time. Each sonnet is
inspired by, and titled after, a different frame of the Zapruder Film.
Following the few seconds before, during and after President Kennedy’s
assignation there is a lot of ground getting covered here. Yeah, I went there.
In all seriousness, each sonnet is carefully formed without being
distractingly rigid, as is often the case with formal poetry. Within each poem
there is a mix of the concrete details and this thoughtful, kind of trippy,
existential look at death, American society, and personal relationships that is
stunning. I could pick nearly any line from any of the poems to demonstrate
this point, but my particular favorite stanza is “This is my song of promises
and lies, making me deaf/to warnings and alarms. Shot one opened up my
throat/so when the sudden angel came commanding me to sing/I could reply like
Caedmon: I can’t sing.”
I dog eared most of this book, partially because of it’s
excellent crafting, and partially because of the unique take on history. The
emotional connection made between Jackie and JFK, between JFK and the time
period, between the poet and the reader, between humanity and it’s struggles with
death… it doesn’t often get better than this. I am a fool for letting this get
lost in my hot mess of a home library, don’t make the same mistake I did.
Dog Eared Pages:
17, 22, 25, 31, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 56,
57, 60, 63, 65
Lindsey Lewis Smithson is the Editor of Straight Forward Poetry. Some of her poetry has appeared on The Nervous Breakdown, This Zine Will Change Your Life, The Cossack Review, and Every Writer’s Resource: Everyday Poems.
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