The Waiting Room by Wayne Lanter Edwin Mellen Press
	Each word of this poetry, each line, is solid and connected. by (Amazon user published 1999-02-20 ) Every poem in this collection had an attention to detail, a dedication to the art of writing poetry. One cannot read these poems fast. They are not light. The words do not lay on the page like fluffs of gauze too easily blown away or moved around. These poems are not sudden moments of inspiration put down willy-nilly and allowed to lay on the page. Another credit to this book is absence of the exhibitionist "I". The "I" of a particular poem should be subordinate to the poem, not the other way around. The poetry brings to mind the French Parnassians and their ideal of a noble poetry cleansed of self. But this poetry does not contain a grain of the elitism they fell into. Poetry is an ideal, but it must be an ideal of communication. Lastly, the poetry is not "rural" not "the country," but the soil is there between every line. There were times I felt I could plant in a crop and it would come green and lush. There is study here. There is effort.