Review by Mack Hassler
The Yooper Poetry Series, originated and edited by Luczak, captivates me in this book Amasa Speaker Factory by Chad Faries (volume VI), which deals mostly with Iron County; and with the Zoschke 2026 edition of Clutch, we get a similar Kerouac-centered “on the road” openness of structure and resonance of meaning that is truly “beat”. We do not often see such openness of structure and a vigorous formlessness of voice in Yooper poetry. So it is a pleasure. Usually we see some variety of the strained and “high intellectualism” of my Petrarchan sonnet form trying to balance the ambivalence of the Saint Thomas scream “I believe. Help thou my unbelief” (Mark 9:25). None of that double talk here in these poems. (See my entries in the last two UP Readers—especially volume #10). (and see UP Reader #9, p.72). But in these poems, we have the outcry of the truly “beat” verse. In his Foreword, Faries lays out the watershed well for us:
“…Iron County has…nearly a dozen named rivers and creeks, all part of the Menominee River watershed, which flows into Lake Michigan. The Iron River runs through the city of Iron River, flows into the Brule before reaching the Menominee. The Paint River flows through Crystal Falls into the Brule… What has always been magical to me is that… from any of these rivers you could navigate a water route to any major port in the world.” (p.ii).
I think this is a wonderful image of the open road by water to the huge ocean seas where the road ends. The French voyageurs, of course, traveled the road back into the country to convert the Indians, who clearly were offended because they had the knowledge, like the ancient Hebrews, where the road ended—in the depths of the waters.
Another fascinating move that Faries makes is that he not only structures his collection of poems by the geography of the land but also by the spread of the telephone lines with his use of the Yooper way of speaking: “Yer on Da Air” and “peddling gossip, don’t cha know” (p.3) A friend of ours when my wife and I lived in Baraga County, just above Iron County, took on the responsibility of selling to the remote households the new fangled device of the phone lines. His sales pitch was to knock on the door. A woman would come and say “Why do I need something new. I am just now learning to use the washing machine.” His answer would be that she could talk with her neighbor over in the next county instantaneously. She would say “sign me up” I love gossip “don’t cha know.” Faries captures the speech as well as the geography.
I am very impressed, therefore, by Amasa Speaker Factory, volume VI, in Raymond Luczak’s series. It makes me want to read more in the series as well as more of Chad Faries. The notes at the back says he “divides his time between Iron River and a town in Georgia I have never heard of “Thunderbolt” Our dear friends from Michigan, Denver and Patti Leinonen, both of whom are gone now, have children in the Atlanta area. Patti had her first teaching job in a small town near Ontanogan that allowed Denver to finish college after the Korean War. They knew Iron County well and would drive us around a lot. This collection reminds me of them a lot. I will ask their son about Thunderbolt. We would often go to Amasa — just a few miles down the highway to Crystal Falls.
Amasa Speaker Factory, Poems, by Chad Faries, Yooper poetry Series, volume VI, edited by Raymond Luczak 2026
(Modern History Press, 5145 Pontiac Trail, Ann Arbor MI 48105)
105 pages, $19.95.
