Searching poems that often make effective use of language, though some are overly polemical at times.
A collection of poetry that examines themes of exile, joy, loss, feminism, and political repression.
In the eight parts of this compilation, Azad (Thus Speaks Mother Simorq, 2018, etc.) often draws on her own experience as an emigrant from Iran to Canada to consider a range of concepts that touch on separation and connection. The first section, aptly named “Lightness,” sets a mood of joyful expectation in such pieces as the opening poem, “Overture to Spring,” in which the speaker makes ready for the end of winter by cleaning out a birdbath, singing as she scrubs out the slimy bowl in anticipation of goldfinches who will fluff and play there; indoors, she says, “butterfly spirits / waltz in through the walls.” Other poems in this book share this speaker’s sense of possibility and spiritual connection, such as “Taming My Animus,” which appreciates how the narrator’s “inner man” allows her imagination to blossom. But the poems generally take a darker turn, addressing emotional distance; exile and diaspora; the loss of a child; a friend’s suicide; and government oppression, particularly of women in Iran. Although these poems can be powerful, many of them are simply bald statements of political stances. For example, in “Mullahs Cannot Block Our Declamations,” the speaker bemoans how “Women wishing to be treated as people, / … / find themselves in the solitary confinement / of the Republic of Discrimination.” Such lines lack subtlety, but Azad does offer cleverer, more artful poems. “Cinema Paradiso,” for example, is entirely constructed of real-life movie titles: “Wings of desire / Heart like a wheel // A man and a woman / Made for each other.” The poem works on its own, apart from the conceit, while also displaying the evocative lure of a good title. Another ingenious piece is “House Wanted,” which imagines the needs of exiles, “A family of five…(million Iranians)” in terms of a classified ad; the fixer-upper they seek “Ideally is / Woman-friendly with / Access to cable democracy.” Others use rhyme, alliteration, and varying verse forms effectively. In “A Garden in Galicia,” for example, the haiku stanzas are more powerful for their compression, saying more with less. “Epiphany” tells an Innu girl’s story, achieving a spooky quality—like a night breeze in dark forest—through rhyme, assonance, and repeated sibilants: “She said she missed her missing / mother, who was nothing but stories / of gaps, ghosts, and dark places, / who shape-shifted into cypress / … / and other displaced faces.” “A Room Full of Joy,” an optimistic poem despite references to “illusions,” “scars,” “burst bubbles,” and “past tears,” concludes with a forthright statement of resiliency: “Don’t be surprised / to see how / my sorrows rise / for lack of / weight.” Here, Azad subtly uses rhyme (“surprised” / “rise”) to lift the stanza, isolating “weight” on a single line, as if to suggest its powerlessness.
Searching poems that often make effective use of language, though some are overly polemical at times.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5255-1366-4
Page Count: 156
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.
A slim volume of largely gay-themed writings with pessimistic overtones.
Poe (Simple Simon, 2013, etc.) divides this collection of six short stories and 34 poems into five sections: “Art,” “Death,” “Relationship,” “Being,” and “Reflection.” Significantly, a figurative death at the age of 7 appears in two different poems, in which the author uses the phrase “a pretended life” to refer to the idea of hiding one’s true nature and performing socially enforced gender roles. This is a well-worn trope, but it will be powerful and resonant for many who have struggled with a stigmatized identity. In a similar vein, “Imaginary Tom” presents the remnants of a faded relationship: “Now we are imaginary friends, different in each other’s thoughts, / I the burden you seek to discard, / you the lover I created from the mist of longing.” Once in a while, short story passages practically leap off of the page, such as this evocative description of a seedy establishment in Lincoln, Nebraska: “It was a dimly lit bar that smelled of rodent piss, with barstools that danced on uneven legs and made the patrons wonder if they were drunker than they thought.” In “Valéry’s Ride,” Poe examines the familial duties that often fall to unmarried and childless people, keeping them from forming meaningful bonds with others. In this story, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hits Louisiana, Valéry’s extended family needs him more than ever; readers will likely root for the gay protagonist as he makes the difficult decision to strike out on his own. Not all of Poe’s main characters are gay; the heterosexual title character in “Mrs. Calumet’s Workspace,” for instance, pursues employment in order to escape the confines of her home and a passionless marriage. Working as a bookkeeper, she attempts to carve out a space for herself, symbolized by changes in her work area. Still, this story echoes the recurring theme of lives unlived due to forces often beyond one’s control.
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-3693-2
Page Count: 120
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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