Reviewed by Patricia Carragon
It Wasn’t Easy to Reach You
by Daniel Meltz
Trail to Table Press
Feb 2025, ISBN: 979-8218513245, 88 pp., $20usd
Life is not a smooth road to walk on, but Daniel Meltz’s poetry offers wisdom, intimacy, kindness, and witticism. Even love. Meltz will guide you along his autobiographical journey, It Wasn’t Easy to Reach You from Trail to Table Press.
Love is difficult to understand. It’s not for everyone. I prefer taking the solo route. I can do without the broken promises, heartbreaks, and forever yearning for the special someone who will be there for the best of times and the worst. But Meltz is different. He is a special person with a heart that runs deeper than mine, and I respect that. His humor is honest and lightens his search to connect and find his purpose with this world. Behind the humor is his quest for being alive—to experience sorrow and joy—to learn and love. A man who is queer, Jewish, and proud.
His childhood may not be like mine but similar. Childhood was the threshold of life. The awkward stage to adulthood.
In “Just Outside of Bowler City”:
my first teacher was my father
a sarcastic figure in underpants
he taught me how to
idolize and instigate
my mother
ran from him
she brushed her hair till it bounced
she used
the hairbrush as a weapon
she loved
the smell of the future
but she never stepped into it
I can relate to the fear of being an outsider, of not being loved, of trying to fit into a toxic household. And school wasn’t much better. However, humor prevailed. Both he and his mentor sister had a mutual relationship and broke bobby pins to scratch up the crap credenza.
Meltz teaches us about kindness in “Last Edit Was Seconds Ago.” He tells us about his mishaps, like:
. . . Used to be bouts of vertigo and homewreaking and acid trips on the railroad tracks . . .
. . . identity swaps and shoplifting at the Brentanos’s in the Village that became a Duane Reade.
He learned to face his demons and got professional help. He returned to his vocabulary. Furthermore, he learned his forever word, kindness, and he became stronger. Not only learning this forever word, Meltz discovered the true meaning of love. The poem, “Lula Boohooed It,” seasoned love with a smile. Some highlights below:
Our love began in a petri dish no
father or mother and the fertilized
form uncurled in a series of
laboratory mix-up clinics…Our love said
nothing, still doesn’t talk much, stupid
but playful,…Our love needed schooling, got a couple of lousy
grades…
In all, Daniel Meltz accomplished what he set out to do with his collection of poems: to love, be kind, forgive, keep growing, even as an adult, and to have a dry sense of humor no matter how many times life knocks you down. I applaud him on his sincere frankness, and his book is a testament to his life.
About the reviewer: Patricia Carragon received a 2025 Best of the Net nomination for her haiku, “Cherry Blossoms,” from Poets Wear Prada. She hosts Brownstone Poets and is the editor-in-chief of its annual anthology. She is the editor of Sense & Sensibility Haiku Journal and listed on the poet registry for The Haiku Foundation. Her jazz poetry collection, Stranger on the Shore from Human Error Publishing, is forthcoming this year. Her latest novel is Angel Fire (Alien Buddha Press, 2020). Her books from Poets Wear Prada are Meowku (2019) and The Cupcake Chronicles (2017). Her book Innocence is from Finishing Line Press (2017). For more information about Ms.Carragon, please check out her websites: brownstonepoets.blogspot.com and patriciacarragon8.wordpress.com/. Twitter:@ BrownstonePoets IG @patriciacarragon Linktree @patriciacarragon @patriciacarragon8.bsky.social Substack:@patriciacarragon https://www.facebook.com/brownstone.poets