Listening to the Icemaker is about aspects of life that one thinks about when awake in the middle of the night. Those erratic thoughts emerge in Lyon's third collection of poems. When he listens to his refrigerator drop ice into the bucket, he reflects on what this wakeup call could mean: "Your message is confusing, simple, and complex,
Frozen for now and on the rocks,
Shared thoughts about love and hate,
Creation and destruction,
That keep me balanced and reflective,
Resigned that mortality will suffice,
And that my life is no small sacrifice."
Every one of these more than one hundred poems delves into the nature of existence, sometimes with details, sometimes with humor, and most often with introspection.
Some of these poems follow particular forms, schemes, and structures. Among a sestina, a haiku, a tritina, a pentina, and a terzanelle, you will find other more uncommon forms such as a canzone, a cinquain, a quintain, a line palindrome, and even hieroglyphics. Other poems have a variety of rhyme schemes and poetic devices. Some lines will stand out like, "The night is just the day with its eyes closed," and "Will we be taken away today?" Some poems are light, others dark. Some disturbing, some perplexing, others portraying mortality. Blending poetic forms with reflection on personal history and the everyday, Lyon's poetry transforms the mundane into something more profound with striking relatability.
The poems in Listening to the Icemaker are placed into three sections: Solid, Liquid, and Gas, the three primary states of matter. How poems ended up in one section or another is transmutable, just like nature. The poem "The Grasp of Poetry" captures how Lyon sees himself as a poet:
"The hands on my watch are spinning,
Don't know what time it is,
What day, what month, what century,
Late for every invitation,
Early for the sunrise
Can't keep track of anything,
Except for inspiration."
Overall, every poem engenders a variety of thoughts as Lyon develops visions that grow out of themselves.
Listening to the Icemaker is a unique and evocative collection that uncovers the edges of human experience, where emotion, memory, and imagination collide. Each poem dares to cross conventional boundaries while exploring themes of resilience, risk, and transformation with unflinching honesty. Incorporating vivid imagery and striking language, Listening to the Icemaker invokes a journey that is well worth the excursion.