The poems of L. G. Hertz often start off talking about one thing, only to reveal that they are talking about something else. Hertz's rhyming poetry is traditional in style and easy to read, but it is full of unexpected parallels, combining things that at first seem to be incongruous, for example, The Ibis and the Tapestry, Hiking and Reading, and Auditions of Red.

Strange resemblances come to light (Feast in the Time of Plague); everyday objects take on a life of their own (Alarm Clock, The Lens Vig, The Bedazzled Stag); and no matter where the reader finds himself, the scene can be both startling and familiar (The Night the Seaside Funhouse Burned, Branch Line).

One of L.G. Hertz's favorite subjects is American English with its quirks and delights, and his light-hearted humorous poems — such as My English-Speaking Dog, A Quartet, and Summer Reading — show a special appreciation for students, especially those who are learning English as a second language. The history of English is a source of fun in Sleeping Beauty, The Bubbling Vernacular, and Degenerate.

Many of Hertz's poems focus on music and the arts (The Piano Tuner, The Portable Soprano, Bas-Relief). Architecture in particular was for Hertz a mirror of human emotions (Shibumi and the Baroque), and within the varied settings of his poems, images mix the outer and inner world (In a Draft, The Elevator Banks of the Lethe Building, Portage.) Familiar landmarks are seen in a new light (The Hotel St. Bonaventure), and foreign locales are inseparable from American culture (Remake, The Tourists).

Hidden affinities lie at the heart of all of the poems of L.G. Hertz, and he returns again and again to the theme that antiquity is inherent in modernity (Convivial, The Roofers), and religious faith inherent in science (Equilibrium, Horsepower, Duns Scotus on Television).

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Read poems from this collection.