The Standing Eight contains multitudes. This is a collection of poems that focuses on boxing—and so much more. Adam Berlin’s visceral world teems with street brawlers and clever counterpunchers, heavy drinkers and chess players, but especially fathers and sons. There are moving meditations on the loss of the poet’s father; equally moving is a study of three young sons rooting on their underdog father from ringside. You’d expect Mike Tyson to swagger through these poems, or the tragic Johnny Tapia; but Shakespeare is here too, and Eugene O’Neill, and Dylan Thomas, and Edward Hopper. Unflinchingly honest, relentlessly intelligent, The Standing Eight should be read by anyone who has ever thrown or taken a punch—and everybody else.
—Martín Espada, The Republic of Poetry
If all the world’s a stage, for Adam Berlin it’s a boxing ring; the megalomaniac intelligence of these poems bring us not only Mike Tyson, but Hamlet’s father, Edward Hopper, lovers, brothers, Tony Soprano and New York City. Whether or not you are knocked down, the grace period of reading these poems will bring you to your feet—with great passion.
—Jessica Greenbaum, The Two Yvonnes
In poems that are “stripped down” like the faces of fighters, fighters who are “different from ordinary men,” Adam Berlin writes from inside the gym, from inside the ring, and from inside the minds of the fighters themselves to demonstrate “what’s here, what’s beautiful.” In their narrative thrust, in lines taut with tension or fluid with grace, the poems reach beyond the lives of these fathers and sons to touch us all. The Standing Eight is a solid addition to the literature of boxing.
—Michael Waters, co-editor Perfect in Their Art: Poems on Boxing from Homer to Ali
Reviewed by Brian Burmeister, Iowa State University
19 january 2018 archive
http://www.uta.edu/english/sla/br180119.html
Brian Burmeister –
Reviewed by Brian Burmeister, Iowa State University
19 january 2018 archive
the standing eight
Boxing has long been a part of our literary and cultural history. Works from such icons as Norman Mailer and Joyce Carol Oates—as well as an Academy-Award-winning Best Picture written by Sylvester Stallone—have helped fuel our nation’s love affair and fascination with the sport. Continuing in that tradition, Adam Berlin, the author of four novels, pens a thoughtful love letter to boxing in his first collection of poetry, The Standing Eight. Within its pages, The Standing Eight explores a range of themes and topics that encompass father-son relationships, masculinity, hard work and perseverance, pain, loss, and the quest for greatness.
Berlin’s experience as a novelist and his skill with storytelling shine in longer poems like “Watched You Become a Pugilist”—the touching story of hall-of-fame boxer Larry Barnes—and “The Father Fight (Full Count)”—in which the narrator watches the three sons of a boxer watch their father in the ring. These poems, as well as others in the collection, successfully bring boxing to life, the realities for these men outside the ring, and Berlin’s admiration for the work ethic and sacrifice of those who are willing to give their all, even when things do not go well.
Issues of masculinity are at the center of “The Greatest Compliment Ever,” a poem in which the drunk narrator has a chance encounter with Mike Tyson in a bar in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “I touched his shoulder when he / walked by and he turned and there he was, Iron Mike, thick-necked and eyes / to eyes with me and he said You scared me, man.” The encounter and the words spoken by the champion boxer immediately ignite macho feelings of invincibility within the narrator but ultimately form a fixation on the interaction which leads to deeper and greater truths.
Throughout the book, Berlin also weaves in pop culture and literary references. “Remember When” takes on much of the feel of an essay—albeit a good one—in which a line from the show The Sopranos is reapplied to the context of boxing. This contemplative and bittersweet poem brings into the fold mentions of another TV series, Boardwalk Empire, and playwright Eugene O’Neill to useful effect.
But for all the great stories, images, and points that Berlin makes, nothing struck me more than his love and appreciation for the men who put their bodies and sometimes their lives on the line for a shot at greatness. “Before the Fights at The Blue Horizon” hits on this perhaps better than any other poem in the collection. It investigates and honors the sport Berlin finds to be so special. Central to this is the author’s effort to unravel the mysteries of why men fight and what drives them to pursue “the opposite of instinct.” As Berlin so perfectly and poignantly writes: “It’s unnatural to stand there / and accept another man’s punch.”
Whether the stories within Berlin’s poems are entirely autobiographical, loosely inspired by Berlin’s experiences, or completely invented, each poem feels authentic. Each poem feels real. And so, too, does the love for the sport. Boxing is not just alive, but truly revered through these pages. The Standing Eight shows us that boxing is work, art, and life lessons—all wrapped into one. Perhaps if there’s anything Berlin wants his readers to take away from his collection, it is this: boxing is beautiful.