South of Snyder

This is Ernest Yates's nineteenth volume of poems, and the latest volume in a series based on his wanderings through Philadelphia streets.South Philly? South south Philly? You mean where BIG NICKS COLD CUTS competes for attention with SKINNY JOEY S CHEESESTEAKS? Where MELROSE DINER and PENROSE DINER are real places? Where shops hunker on every corner, churches send spires above every few blocks, and rowhouses like cubbyholes line up neatly in between? Where streets are single asphalt lanes and cars congest sidewalks since there s nowhere to park? Where immigrants from everywhere toil in workshops or clean houses bigger than their own? Where there s scarcely a tinsel strand of adornment, fancy is frowned upon, and poetry . . . and poetry . . . what s that?