Pilgrims: A Love Story

the inciting incident
Scene: Arc d’ Triumph. Jude Law meets Gabriel

Garcia Marquez, calls him Gabo.

Marquez slaps the boy and calls him puta,

Bitch, and they are instantly transported

To a deserted island where they must listen

To evangelists uthe inciting incident

Scene: Arc d’ Triumph. Jude Law meets Gabriel
Garcia Marquez, calls him Gabo.

Marquez slaps the boy and calls him puta,
Bitch, and they are instantly transported

To a deserted island where they must listen
To evangelists until they repent and kiss

On the lips. A stand-off for months. Then the rainy season.
The droplets, open mouths. The two men kiss like dust.

Number two in the “Top 5 Facts About Pilgrims: A Love Story” is that “It requires a legal disclaimer: Jude Law is not really Jude Law. Same goes for Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” Nor is the world represented the world we know. It is Beitelman’s world, and all of these things happened. To him.

T. J. Beitelman is a graduate of the University of Alabama’s MFA program and his work has been published in a variety of literary magazines including Indiana Review and New Orleans Review. He has been awarded fellowships from the Alabama State Council of the Arts and the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham. His chapbook Thirteen Curses and Other Poems was published by Dream Horse Press in 2009. The manuscript of Pilgrims: A Love Story won the spring 2008 Black River Chapbook Competition. His full-length collection In Order to Form a More Perfect Union, published by Black Lawrence Press, will be available in 2012.

In this small collection the author sends the two central characters, Jude Law and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, on a physical and metaphysical journey into the desolate hinterland of America in a red Edsel. As they travel and see things new and old, Gabo leads Jude to understand that all is not as it seems, that everything leads to and from nothing:

Fresh faced you. Our student. A one-time star
of stage
And screen and now a simple vessel. The
moral?
This is a lesson in daring escapes.
Nothing
Holds you here. Don’t get lost in shimmer, shine,
and show.
There’s no one left but You to watch You now.

(from “judes last gasp at knowing”)

Beitelman has an assured voice that cautions the reader against the excesses of modern society, the “shimmer, shine, and show,” while, at the same time using those very excesses as images and imaginings. The protagonists are searching for something, something grand and worthwhile, and in the end the grand thing they find is the realization that it is all meaningless. The grandeur is in them and of them.

In Pilgrims: A Love Story the author has skillfully used characters and images from contemporary America to illustrate the belief that we are too invested in our attachments, in things and appearances. In some respects this is a very “Zen” collection. The characters meditate upon the nature of their existences, they expand upon the sum of their experiences until the come to the realization that it is all for nothing. Beitelman reminds us in this lovely chapbook that we are nothing and no one but ourselves, and our world is no more than what we make it.

One = a simple, empty desert.
One = a gleaming, peopled city.

One is always alone.
One is never alone.

Jude sits cross-legged
To face the god

Who would make a world
So big and beige and plain.

(from “the new religion”)

This collection is another confident step along the way for this talented poet. He has a clear voice and an understanding of his art that will serve him well in the years to come. He manipulates his images well and appears to have a good handle on the world and where he sits in it. It is pleasing to see strong new talent coming out of America.
ntil they repent and kiss

On the lips. A stand-off for months. Then the rainy season.

The droplets, open mouths. The two men kiss like dust.

Number two in the “Top 5 Facts About Pilgrims: A Love Story” is that “It requires a legal disclaimer: Jude Law is not really Jude Law. Same goes for Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” Nor is the world represented the world we know. It is Beitelman’s world, and all of these things happened. To him.

T. J. Beitelman is a graduate of the University of Alabama’s MFA program and his work has been published in a variety of literary magazines including Indiana Review and New Orleans Review. He has been awarded fellowships from the Alabama State Council of the Arts and the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham. His chapbook Thirteen Curses and Other Poems was published by Dream Horse Press in 2009. The manuscript of Pilgrims: A Love Story won the spring 2008 Black River Chapbook Competition. His full-length collection In Order to Form a More Perfect Union, published by Black Lawrence Press, will be available in 2012.

In this small collection the author sends the two central characters, Jude Law and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, on a physical and metaphysical journey into the desolate hinterland of America in a red Edsel. As they travel and see things new and old, Gabo leads Jude to understand that all is not as it seems, that everything leads to and from nothing:

Fresh faced you. Our student. A one-time star
of stage
And screen and now a simple vessel. The
moral?

This is a lesson in daring escapes.
Nothing
Holds you here. Don’t get lost in shimmer, shine,
and show.

There’s no one left but You to watch You now.

(from “judes last gasp at knowing”)

Beitelman has an assured voice that cautions the reader against the excesses of modern society, the “shimmer, shine, and show,” while, at the same time using those very excesses as images and imaginings. The protagonists are searching for something, something grand and worthwhile, and in the end the grand thing they find is the realization that it is all meaningless. The grandeur is in them and of them.

In Pilgrims: A Love Story the author has skillfully used characters and images from contemporary America to illustrate the belief that we are too invested in our attachments, in things and appearances. In some respects this is a very “Zen” collection. The characters meditate upon the nature of their existences, they expand upon the sum of their experiences until the come to the realization that it is all for nothing. Beitelman reminds us in this lovely chapbook that we are nothing and no one but ourselves, and our world is no more than what we make it.

One = a simple, empty desert.

One = a gleaming, peopled city.

One is always alone.

One is never alone.

Jude sits cross-legged

To face the god

Who would make a world

So big and beige and plain.

(from “the new religion”)

This collection is another confident step along the way for this talented poet. He has a clear voice and an understanding of his art that will serve him well in the years to come. He manipulates his images well and appears to have a good handle on the world and where he sits in it. It is pleasing to see strong new talent coming out of America.