When Yesterday Was Today - Edmund Siejka

Sometimes it is good to go local. Edmund Siejka is a poet who lives on Long Island, New York, which is also my home. Reading his collection of poems “When Yesterday Was Today” made me feel a little at home. Many of his characters frequent the somewhat familiar setting of New York’s East Village as well as the very familiar setting of Long Island, New York. There is something a little comforting and homey about reading poetry that references newspapers that I know well, streets that I casually drive on and people who use the same local colloquialisms that I do.

My knowledge of poetry is admittedly limited. I have read Shakespeare as well as the many of the classical epic poems throughout my life. I have also explored Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe somewhat deeply. Other than that I have read a few well-known classics from poets such as Emily Whitman and Rudyard Kipling. I am not well versed on modern styles or theory.

With that said I really loved Siejka’s work. The poems are poignant yet not overly sentimental. His style is very accessible and easy to understand but far from simplistic. Siejka focuses on the everyday experiences of mostly everyday people who frequent New York City as well as its suburbs. A few of his poems speak in the voice of American soldiers during the Vietnam War.

When reading these poems several ideas come to mind. One pervasive theme that seems to run through many of the works is the exploration of change that we humans experience over the course of life. Many of the poems focus on a narrator looking back at earlier years and pondering life’s transformations both in himself as well as in others.

One of the more interesting looks at these changes is contained in “Sister Elizabeth”, a poem about a Catholic school nun who mercilessly administered corporal punishment to students. Siejka catches her later in life:

“Over the years

Attitudes changed

Commitments weakened

And Sister, childless and alone, realized

Much too late

That her days of sacrifice and Catholicism

Chastity and prayer

Had been a life against nature”

Most of the poems, unlike the above are not about regret; rather they analyze life’s stages and passages from varying points of view. In what is in my opinion a very wise observation, Siejka concludes in “Autumn”,

“I now realize

Life did not change

I did

And what I need now

Are good friends,

Honest talks

And simpler times.”

Siejka’s work should be of interest to anyone who is inclined to explore poetry and thoughts about the East Village, Long Island, or just aesthetically pleasing and philosophical observations about life itself.

Many of his poems can be found here.

When Yesterday Was Today can be purchased at Book Revue in Huntington, New York; St. Mark's Bookstore in the East Village, New York, New York; Cano's in Sag Harbor, New York and Housing Works in Soho, New York, New York. The book can also be taken out from the libraries at Cold Spring Harbor, New York and Seaford New York.

The author’s wife is a colleague and friend of mine. My copy of this book was complimentary.