Old Hollywood Émigré Nostalgia
Review of the Paul Dry Books paperback edition (April 5, 2022).

And now I watch another era fade,
Cyrillic letters scraped from shuttered storefronts,
tar-crusted bread, stale fish, stiff marmalade
sit sulking on the shelves, unchosen orphans
in what were once the bustling little shops
of Russian Hollywood. Hardly a soul now stops
to thumb the plums... - excerpt from "The Garden of Allah", the hotel originally was the home of Alla Nazimova, late stage and screen star.

Much of the delight in these contemporary poems comes from the fact that they rhyme. Call me old fashioned but that is still what makes poetry sing for me, even if there are some rare modern day exceptions. That the poetry is also nostalgia oriented about old time Hollywood is a bonus. There is a slant towards the time of early 20th Century Russian émigrés, many of whose families likely escaped pogroms or other Tsarist or Communist terror back in their home country. An entire section is devoted to translations from the Russian language poetry of some of those.

Soundtrack
With two of the poems in the section Russian Hollywood: Translations being by Vernon Duke (original name Vladimir Dukelsky) I couldn't resist listening to a few of that poet/composer's classic songs, of which you can listen to 4 of them here, including "Autumn in New York", "April in Paris", "I Can't Get Started" and "Taking a Chance on Love."

Other Reviews
Review at Poetry Foundation by Heather Green, April 5, 2022
Review at World Literature Today by Dustin Condren, July, 2022.
Review at LA Review of Books by Art Beck, July 2, 2022.

Bonus Track
There are 2 translated poems by Vernon Duke in this book, but not this one. Listen to Major Jackson recite “Fish Pier, Santa Monica” by Vernon Duke translated by Boris Dralyuk on the Slow Down Show Podcast from March 6, 2024.

Trivia and Links
There are links to further reviews, endorsements and to individual poems published in journals at the author's Wordpress website which you can find here. ( )