Coffee House Press, 2004 $16

The California Poem is Eleni Sikelianos’ sprawling, ambitious, artfully messy, multi–media (writing, drawing, photography, collage) attempt to render California—the entire state—in a nearly 200-page poem. So the question stands: Did Sikelianos succeed? As I returned to the book over a two–month period I kept hearing the same voice repeating, “I didn’t think anyone was doing this anymore!” The sheer bravado of undertaking such a daunting artistic project at a time when most poets are content to cobble together 60 pages of publishable poetry is to be applauded. The most immediate reference (what is a poetry review without a reference?) is to Whitman’s Leaves of Grass with his inclusion of each and every person, star, beast, pebble, dream, and passionate flashes of the poet himself, walking the dusty streets of his beloved country. Sikelianos does love her California: I can’t help but imagine her chanting her songs to Whitman across 3,000 miles and 100-plus years of American history. And, as Whitman was often a touchstone in his own poems, it was a pleasure running into the young Eleni throughout The California Poem: the quintessential adolescent poet stealing radios and silver quarters and hanging out with surfer kids at night by the bonfire. Did she succeed? The Book of California comes from a poet of greater breath (and breadth) than you’ll find in a whole New York-full of poetry magazines, creative writing departments and literary receptions. The Book of California is a triumph. The ball is in your court, New York.