Ed Ochester and Jan Beatty

Among the things that poetry exists to explore are the popular and commercial cultures, the places we live and used to live (in body and mind), the work we do and the labors we’ve endured, the loves we enjoy and the ones we’ve left behind, the people we’ve encountered, engaged and been captivated by. These are only a few of the themes that can be found in Ed Ochester’s new and selected poems, “Unreconstructed.”

There are over one hundred poems in this collection, spanning four books, but I will look closely at just a few that resonate with me. From the book “Changing the Name to Ochester,” there are several poems with a working class narrative (very Jim Daniels like) that tell the story of Whitehead Metals and an employee named Duke. These are blue collar themed poems representative of the Pittsburgh community and heritage.

There are a couple short and playful yet poignant poems that define the place where Ochester is writing from while creating setting and commenting on the social dynamic witnessed by the author. “Why I Love Teenagers” gives a prankster the benefit of the doubt by allowing them a reasonable excuse for altering a sign at the Burger King in Holiday Park, PA. The poem “Monroeville, PA” humorously observes the reaction of people on the street after someone yells “Hey Asshole!” These poems exhibit Ochester’s attention to the everyday moments that help make up our communities and personal worlds.

I was particularly intrigued by the phrase “Whatever blossoms is rooted in the dark” and how it is used as both the end of “The Muse” and the beginning of the following poem, “The Heart of Owl Country.” The line seems to say that everything we witness, particularly the beautiful images, have a beginning that is often as yet unseen or not yet described.

As a whole, Ochester’s poetry is accessible, his voice is casual, conversational and he creates settings that are inviting. His is primarily a narrative style that tells a story and explores our relationship with the people and places that surround us.



If Ochester’s poetry can be considered relatively conservative then Jan Beatty’s is brutally honest. She is really pulling at the root of darkness with poems that expose society’s more gruesome side. She writes disturbing yet compelling narratives about rape, incest, pedophilia and sexual fantasy. These are stories that are often difficult to hear, but ones that need to be told. There is a reality in them that comes from the language Beatty uses, a dark and brazen language. For instance, in the poem “Morning Radio” the narrator describes a poetry radio show being listened to by a young girl as “bringing her pleasant poems to be raped by” while “the belt of her father’s robe passes her face…before he gets on top of her.” Two poems, “Fifteen” and “The Day I Stripped” tell the story of a young girl who gets molested by her gynecologist. In “Fifteen” – his tongue is shoved down her throat and in “The Day I Stripped”, his “tongue [is] wormy in my throat.” These images are not easy to read, but they are highly effective in keeping the reader engaged in the story.

Even the poems that are more meditative, such as “Fog” and “Standing by the McKenzie River at Night” are dark and cold. She writes of the foam on the river changing shapes, stiff men in robes (that reminds the reader of “Morning Radio”), fog surrounding the narrator “like a lover’s hand over my face as limbs grab and slash in passion…”

One thing can certainly be said about Jan Beatty: her poetry is not afraid to tell us what’s wrong with the world, to expose atrocities and leave us thinking, well after we’ve put them down.