The Devious Route

By Helen Kanevsky

We often judge remarkable achievements by the rarity in which they are performed. It
is no exaggeration to place that judgment on these provocative poems by Helen Kanevsky. These
writings are something special and rare, from a poet who only began to learn English as an older
adultbringing into her new-lettered world the life experience of a native to Russian Jewish culture,
with its deep literary tradition intertwined with the complex history of a country that not so long ago
stood at the crossroads of world events and the forefront of social revolution.
Reading these poems by Helen Kanevsky makes me think of the power of words the
power to evoke, the power to lead the mind through new avenues of hitherto unknown realities.
Helen is very conscious of this power and rejoices in their potential when she proclaims her adamant
faith in the superpower of words.
Helen has emerged as a new person, in a new world. And it occurs to me that the words
have formed the woman as much as the woman has formed the words. There is in this a gift to the
reader: As a foreigner brought on to the shores of English expression, she brings a unique framework.
As she directs her verbal lens we see the world in a different way.
Bruce Neuburger, author of Lettue Wars

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479729890

Helen Kanevsky

The first short-short story that I wrote in my introductory English class in San Mateo Adult School was about a homeless woman who managed to find a janitor position in a doctor’s office and went shopping in Nordstrom. I always knew how to dream big. Pretty soon I learned that many American success stories were made by poorly equipped people—some college dropouts, some who were mentally or physically disabled. Well, I started to write my beloved poems, prose, and short stories long before I gathered a little ability to speak and be understood. Why not? All those success-story folks didn’t have an MBA or mastered any calculus. It is America after all—nothing stood between me and my vision about the pursuit of happiness. I still didn’t make my first million or even a thousand dollars, but I have published my first book of poems. I hope you will enjoy my narrative and start your own vision about the pursuit of happiness, and when you get rich, please do not forget to buy a few copies of The Devious Route. I would really appreciate it.

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Helen Kanevsky.

Library of Congress Control Number:  2012919230

ISBN:

Hardcover   978-1-4797-2988-3

Softcover    978-1-4797-2987-6

Ebook         978-1-4797-2989-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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123083

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

I am good at doing nothing

A Naked Angel

The Temptation of Pomegranate

My Mother

The Gloves

On the Death of Professor V.

A Second-Hand Breather

The Home I Knew Is Gone

The Breast-Beating about the Sixties at Solana Beach Antique Shop

The Versatile Pot

The Family Album

The Accident

A Stop

After Reading James Wright’s Poem, Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

A Recipe for a Crunch Poetical Muffin Topped with a Cruor and Chocolate

Colored Dreams

Fortune Cookie

God the Father

Hallucination

London

Havana

Karma

My Computer

My Name

The Essential Colors

She

Somebody

The Faust Trick

The Aberration

On Sarah’s Drawing in Pencil

Reading Dante on San Francisco BART

On the Death of My Father

The Bridge

Peace Sign

The Dead Person Donor Cards

Reshaping

The Creation of Weird Scenes

The Rain

The Game

The Gelatin Silver Black-and-White Photograph

The Hungry Poem

The Neglected Momentum

The Poetic Foam

The Razzmatazz

The Wheel of Life

To Construct the Plot

Laundry

MeterMaids Holiday Gathering

Villanelles

The Villanelle for My Bald Mozart

The Beer-Inspired Villanelle

The Evolutional Villanelle

The Awkward Villanelle

My Private Villanelle

Justifying human’s eating habits

Paying attention to only important things is the shortest way to happiness

The sure way to ultimate happiness

It is a good idea to love insects no less than roses, as well as to love the thorns no less than the blooming flowers

The big city girls are dangerous species

Spending time in bookstores and libraries is good for your mental and physical health

Don’t let your feelings lead you to the unknown if you are not ready to be hurt

Commit to memory of better times when solitude is trying to seduce you to depression

The attempt to dissolve myself in nature could be more successful if the political turmoil in the Middle East were settled

Gratitude to my husband for saving two pieces of our wedding china that made this hot summer day as pleasant as an early spring day

Vladimir Kruglikov, translated from Russian

Foreword

Helen Kanevsky’s poems made the voice of her generation better heard and more precise. Her poems recollect her family history and her turbulent inner life without skipping the intimate details or hiding her odd perception of the world’s ruling forces. The poems form a moving narrative that reads like a novel. It is her angle on the universe and the weirdness of everyday life reflected in this collection of poems that keep a reader’s mind working long after the last page of the narrative is finished.

The author appears to be a stubborn person who writes poems trying to understand what life is about. A native of Moscow, Russia, Helen had never studied English, the language of her poems, before she came to California in her late forties. I would say one of the pillars of American culture is an attitude of praise and complimenting others that the English language provides, says Helen. English was a mighty tool that reshaped my feeble personality into an ‘I can do it’ individual.

O     O     O

We often judge remarkable achievements by the rarity in which they are performed. It is no exaggeration to place that judgment on these provocative poems by Helen Kanevsky. These writings are something special and rare, from a poet who only began to learn English as an older adult—bringing into her new-lettered world the life experience of a native to Russian Jewish culture, with its deep literary tradition intertwined with the complex history of a country that not so long ago stood at the crossroads of world events and the forefront of social revolution.

Reading these poems by Helen Kanevsky makes me think of the power of words—the power to