HCSHR 6:19 - Paul Engel, Time Traveling Samurai Gets a Temp Office Job and a Cheap Apartment with a Balcony

 Time Traveling Samurai Gets a Temp Office Job and a Cheap Apartment with a Balcony by Paul Engel (Lulu Press: 2023). 35 pages, 5.5” x 8.5”. Saddle Stich. $5 from online booksellers.

Review by Jerome Berglund

 

If you are craving something subversive, inventive and original in its application of contemporary short form poetry, look no further than Paul Engel’s recent chapbook. Pure and hardboiled of writing style, imagistic in concrete content yet rich with profundity and subtle far-reaching implications, Time Traveling Samurai consistently dazzles. One can without difficulty picture its sketches being adapted for the silver screen by Luis Buñuel or Jim Jarmusch.

 

fishing for catfish / hot dog bait— Samurai

 

Implementing a supple, potent new kigo, the author’s singular L3 may henceforth be forever etched in readers’ minds. The proverbial feudal retainer, transported and repurposed, becomes synonymous with, inseparable from our modern, alienated protagonist’s resolute struggle for meaning. This parallels stirringly each individual’s search for their accommodating place within post-industrial society, the homes and workforces of our electronic epoch. In a compact treatise Engel catalogues poignantly the trials and tribulations, but also rare moments of precious triumph of an archetypal automaton everyman. From the most prosaic, ephemeral slice-of-life minutia Zen principles can be discerned we learn, and happiness may even be eked. With withering angst reminiscent to Kafka, the existential ennui of Camus, absurdity which should make Beckett proud, the poet demonstrates admirable range and depth. Yet Engel also captures the hilarious anachronism of John Belushi in a kimono and topknot, the chic European cool of Le Samouraï Alain Delan donning trench coat and fedora. Bringing pathos and complexity to the ordinary proletarian struggle, a sense of timelessness and nobility is infused. Meaning can also be inferred and extrapolated. By enduring each indignity the narrator may better savor the beauty of a wildflower or YouTube sumo video. This haiku and senryu banquet contains equal portions Fight Club and Metropolis, Office Space and Lost in Translation.

 

Monday morning / rank office bathroom— / Samurai

 

Deftly treading a thin line between humorist and incisive social critic, Engel maintains perfect balance and strikes no false notes. The results are fascinating, hypnotic, deeply unnerving yet also inspiring in many senses. Beneath the unique and novel premise quite sophisticated and compelling techniques and explorations are occurring in earnest, begging careful attention and consideration. This is a book one can return to multiple times and continue discovering things. It spurs valuable reflections and questions which behoove readers to think long and hard about the answers for. Truly the volume represents an important collection of Anthropocene micropoetry which will be of great use to students and scholars. It might be regarded as an investigation into what the haikai traditions can be utilized to achieve in the 21^stcentury, approaching lofty concerns with clear objectives and something imperative to say.  The noteworthy usage of food kigo is also particularly memorable and exemplary, makes one very hungry.  A surreal, remarkable romp off the beaten path you won’t regret taking.

 *****

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