Reviewed By Beverly Rorick

THE LEGAL STUDIES FORUM, an interdisciplinary journal that has highlighted literature, film, and popular culture in past years, has released its 2004 volume Off the Record, An Anthology of Poetry by Lawyers. The 732-page book is the first of its kind and presents the poetry of 66 lawyers or former lawyers and one law student.

Editor James R. Elkins, a professor at the College of Law, West Virginia University, states in his introduction that law reviews sometimes include a poem or two, but they are "inevitably law-related." The poems in Off the Record cover a multitude of subjects. Some of the contributors are well-established poets, such as Martin Espada, English professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, or famed trial lawyer Gerry Spence, or international law scholar Richard Falk, along with many others. The lawyer poets included in the anthology have written approximately 80 books of published poetry and their work has appeared in hundreds of literary and poetry journals.

A rare mix of accomplished and novice poets, the anthology contains both works of literary merit and what seem to be works-in-progress, making for an interesting if somewhat uneven reading. However, many of the poems give us a unique glimpse at the other personas of lawyers. For instance:

Career Choice
By Jim Nye

I wear my fatigue jacket fishing
Everything else—packed away
Didn’t join the VFW, Order of the Purple Heart
Don’t have a funny little hat, bumper sticke

I do have scars, memories
And fading photographs

Haven’t been to the wall
Don’t need to wrap myself in the flag.
Make a career of being a veteran.

I did it,
It is enough
that I did it.

Children at Sleep

By Frank Pommersheim

Each breath
fills the room.
The current
rises and falls.

You wish
them well:

Sweet sailing.

They plunge on
oaring
through the night.

The book may be ordered from Elkins by e-mail at jelkins@labs.net or by writing to the College of Law/West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6130. The cost is $28, including shipping.

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