Poetry is a versatile medium, allowing for everything from momentary musings to towering epics. Don Behrend’s IN DOUBTFUL TASTE (New and Selected Poems) tends toward the former: a slim volume of rhyming verse, many only a few lines long. But Behrend’s brevity contains multitudes—with musings on everything from love to animals to some of the Oxford English Dictionary’s more over-the-top words.

The collection’s alliterative chapter titles file Behrend’s poetry under a series of P-words, starting with the most prominent of them all: “Pandemic.” The inclusion of this section is almost like performance art: simply being greeted by the word at the front end of the collection instills a weariness in the reader. Admittedly, though, this is a weariness Behrend shares. If he didn’t, ironically, these poems wouldn’t exist. These brief reflections on masking, isolation, and moving online will likely take time to truly ferment to their full flavor, as is the case with any pandemic literature.

“Poems for the Present” is next: still modern, but less mired in the global weariness of the preceding section. Here, Behrend’s true wit begins to bloom. The cheeky “Security Check” muses on navigating airport security with piercings, while “Vox Populi” wonders at the world’s growing political divide. The deeper a reader wades into IN DOUBTFUL TASTE, the more Behrend shines. The cleverest rhymes surface in the playful “Erotesis” and the soap-centric “Saponaceous.” These and others beg to be read aloud for full effect. All his poems can be enjoyed silently, but his words come fully to life when spoken. The simple, straightforward meters are used to their full potential, making them easy and enjoyable to recite and listen to. Better still, many poems are preceded by bites of historical or linguistic context so all readers can be on board.

While there are many fantastic selections throughout this collection, ranging from grand reflections on mortality to embarrassing encounters at restaurants, “Jules Verne on the A380” is the stand-out of the book. The two-page poem is written from the perspective of the legendary author aboard a modern-day passenger plane as he wonders what his readers would think of this, nowadays, wholly mundane experience. This perspective—the blending of history and modernity—is Behrend at his peak: a fusion of present-day observance with classical understanding.

Even for those who aren’t regular readers of poetry, Don Behrend’s IN DOUBTFUL TASTE is an excellent read. The rhyming verse ebbs and flows and the content is both insightful and rich. At its best, it’s cheeky, lyrical, and all the more vibrant when read aloud, even for an audience of one.

~Kara Dennison for IndieReader