Title: The East Deck Motel and Selected Poetry
Author: Theodore M. Wandzilak, M.D.
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-5144-6782-2
Pages: 54
Genre: Poetry
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin
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The East Deck Motel is located at the very Eastern end of Long Island, New York – about 120 miles from New York City; a special austere place where the geography, sand, ocean and air combine creating an intoxicating feeling of relaxation for all those who visit.
As people leave the cavernous skyscrapers of the city, and begin an Eastern trek along the Long Island Expressway or Southern State Parkway, they eventually pass through the crowded suburbs of Nassau Country. Then continuing, they migrate through the less dense bedroom communities of Suffolk County, when the road tapers and the sand dunes appear and begin to dominate the scenery. For the remaining hour of the ride one gets a feeling of reaching the end of an island; the end of a one-way direction as the road eventually stops. Sand and the Atlantic Ocean finally meet and there is no way to travel unless you turn around, returning the way you came.
The air is laden with the mist of ocean spray and the sand slows one’s walking pace, narrowing your thoughts to the here and now as it dominates your senses. It is at the end of a long trip away from the density of man’s most impressive civilized city, inherently giving everyone who makes this journey a hypnotic sense of relaxation. I believe in many ways the destination of Key West, Florida also emanates this “end of the path” destination location. I was lucky enough to grow up on Long Island, knowing first-hand this unique marine environment, the fresh salt air, and the feelings of the area. It is there the small, unassuming East Deck Motel offers accommodations to travelers; an ideal environment for writing poetry.
Author, poet, chemist and medical doctor, Theodore M. Wandzilak has found the genre of beat poetry as being an ideal medium for his creative expression of his stories; an outlet as diametrically opposed to the technical and scientific details his daily life is based upon. In this collection of just over a score of poems, Wandzilak unabatingly reveals his most personal feelings, romantic exploits, challenges and accomplishments he has experienced in his life within terse, straightforward tidbits of words describing the snippets of life which he has artfully reduced to his essences of truth. Working within the classical grammatical constraints of beat poetry with its subtle rhyme and unique style, one is brought into his life realizing his appreciation for the world as viewed by the author; contributing his emanated realizations brought out partly due to the destination of his visits to the end of Long Island.
The assembly of poems tie together, with a personal reveal of the author far deeper than the terse word count. Titles such as Young Love, Paralyzed, London Fog, Betrayal exemplifies the broad range of emotional subjects. Even his poem A Partial Autobiography tells so much in such few words.
His poetry professes a respectable gentlemanly tone, avoiding the explicit details yet conveying the sensuality of his romantic past. Commonly threaded in his beat poetry is latent humor, a “lifted eyebrow” of understanding or a comic reference. The galley text is superimposed over gently scribed watermarks of floral patterns over gradient hues of fuchsia coloration. A masterful use of words and styles makes The East Deck Motel and Selected Poetry an ideal gift for any occasion, as well as a wonderful companion read for a weekend outing to the beach. A collection of poetry which can be enjoyed by all ages and read multiple times. I recommend this book to everyone, and hope to see additional books by this extraordinary poet.
