Joseph Capista’s first book of poems, Intrusive Beauty, is a slim container of 40 gems, selected by Beth Fennelly as the winner of the 2019 Hollis Summers Poetry Prize. Most of the collection is written in formal verse. The sonnets, villanelles, and pantoums are so refreshing and modern in their outlook that even those few who dislike form will find enjoyment; in fact, these poems may sneak up on the reader and deliver pleasure before they can say, “Hey, this is a villanelle.”
We find the villanelle “The Beautiful Things of the Earth Become More Dear as They Elude Pursuit” with its two terrific repeating lines: “Another wave rolls over me before / Foam lifts me, holds me, sings me back to shore” (11). This pleasant surfing poem is mixed with Capista’s other subjects such as family, his city of Baltimore, communities of the less fortunate that he has served, and the students he has met as an adjunct professor in a non-Ivy League university.
Capista is a sensitive observer of life’s variables. In his sonnet “Cornicello,” the speaker purchases a cornicello—an Italian amulet to protect against bad luck and promote fertility—for his wife. However, the amulet did both and yet not quite enough, making it the inspiration for one of the most poignant poems in the collection. Capista writes:
Of course I hoped you’d pass each day unharmed.
Of course I hoped it might help us conceive.
Of course the accident still happened, love.
Of course we lost the baby. Life’s uncharmed.
It hangs between us now like all unsaid
because it didn’t work, because it did. (Lines 9-14)
The sestet resonates and emphasizes how and why the cornicello became personal to the couple, and the last two lines push the reader to a strong sense of finality.
Joseph Capista combines an admirable respect for the traditions of poetic craftsmanship with a love of life and all its complications and joys. Intrusive Beauty is a book worth buying.
Robert Halleck has been writing poetry for over 50 years and is the author of four poetry chapbooks. He is a regular attendee at Kenyon's Summer Workshops where he studies with Natalie Shapero. His work has appeared in several journals, including The Paterson Literary Review and Rye Whisky Review. Robert is a member of San Diego's Not Dead Yet Poets and hopes to remain so for a number of years.