HippoPress -- The Hippo -- Guide to Manchester and Nashua NH

The cover of Honey, I’m Home, the latest collection by Manchester poet Nathan Graziano, features an Everyman sort of guy, carrying a briefcase and about to hang up his hat as he comes through the door at the end of the workday.

The cover and title of the collection smacks heavily of the movie Pleasantville, wherein the dad character (played by William H. Macy) lives an idyllic life of work and family until his wife and children began to get ideas. After that, life is not-so good — dinner is late, the kids start having sex and the wife leaves to make time with the guy at the soda shop.

Intentional or not, the movie reference is funny, because the life described in Graziano’s poems is far from the ideal. But it is life.

Graziano, as a poet, is a champion of the simple things. He doesn’t bother with the big questions — life, truth, god, etc. — because he understands those things don’t really matter. It’s all theory until you put it into practice through life. So he writes about moments through which glimpses of the bigger picture shine through. Is there more to learn in a philosophy class or in looking with love into the eyes of your child? In Graziano’s view, the eyes have it.

Couple this vision with wit and a fair hand at poetry, and you end up with a solidly good poetry collection. Honey, I’m Home is an enjoyable read and most of the poems within will make you think and feel and smile, or quirk your lips wistfully and knowingly.

Nathan Graziano lives in Manchester with his wife and two children. He has published several chapbooks, broadsides and CDs of spoken word, as well as a full-length book of fiction titled Frostbite (Green Bean Press, 2002). (He has also written a few book reviews for Hippo.) Graziano teaches writing at Pembroke Academy in Pembroke, N.H.

Honey, I’m Home can be had for $5 from amazon.com or direct from the publisher at sunnyoutside.com.