A gripping poetic meditation on aging and caregiving.
A volume of poetry looks at what it means to watch a parent fade.
In this unflinching, highly compelling collection, Spang (Those Close Beside Me, 2018, etc.) mines his own life for reflections on his childhood and mother. As Anna, his mother, crosses into her 10th decade, the author and his partner, Myles, move her into their home where they care for her, watching as her body and mind begin to fail. In an early poem, Spang describes her as “handy as a wrench,” mimicking the limited view children often have of their parents. But the collection winds from the author’s childhood to adulthood and becomes increasingly revealing along the way. The book is often worth reading for the nuggets of Anna’s life, like the fact that she danced with Martha Graham and that she, as Spang reports with gentle humor, insisted her less than faithful husband was “wonderful.” The author is able to infuse the volume with joy and compassion while shining a light on the more unflattering episodes that come with caring for an elderly parent. Recalling a particularly difficult moment helping his mother to the bathroom, he writes: “I hear a scream—who is it? / It’s me or what seems to be me / (there is no other way to say it) / screaming like I’ve gone out of my mind. / I slam my fist into the closet door, / and cry out, ‘I can’t take it!’ ” The vivid scene ends with mother comforting son, underscoring the ways in which physical dependency is not the only mode at play in their new dynamic. Dividing the intimate yet universal poems are quotes from writers like Czesław Miłosz, Robert Frost, and Walt Whitman, accompanied by simple images of nature by debut photographer Rightmire. Gardening—a hobby Spang and his mother seem to share—is a long-running theme in these pages. An especially arresting closing poem uses the language of gardens both earthly and biblical to make sense of Anna’s eventual death.
A gripping poetic meditation on aging and caregiving.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-73236-246-8
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Moon Pie Press
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An emotional, captivating Christian story in verse.
Heidish (A Misplaced Woman, 2016, etc.) presents an account of St. Francis of Assisi’s life, as told from his father’s perspective in poetic form.
St. Francis is known as a saint who believed in living the Gospel, gave sermons to birds, and tamed a wolf. Over the course of 84 poems, Heidish tells her own fictionalized version of the saint’s journey. In his youth, Francesco is an apprentice of his father, Pietro Bernardone, a fabric importer. The boy is a sensitive dreamer and nature lover who sees “natural holiness in every living thing.” As an adult, Francesco decides to pursue knighthood, but God warns him to “Go back, child / Serve the master.” He joins the Church of San Damiano, steals his father’s storeroom stock, and sells it to rebuild the church. His furious father chains him in the cellar, and the bishop orders Francesco to repay the debt. Afterward, father and son stop speaking to each other; Francesco becomes a healer of the sick and a proficient preacher. After failing to broker a peace agreement during wartime, Francesco falls into depression and resigns his church position. He retreats to the mountains and eventually dies; it’s only then that Pietro becomes a true follower of St. Francis: “You are the father now and I the son / learning still what it means to be a saint,” he says. Heidish’s decision to tell this story from Pietro’s perspective is what makes this oft-told legend seem fresh again. She uses superb similes and metaphors; for example, at different points, she writes that St. Francis had eyes like “lit wicks” and a spirit that “shone like a clean copper pot.” In another instance, she describes the Church of San Damiano as a place in which “walls crumbled / like stale dry bread.” Following the poems, the author also offers a thorough and engaging historical summary of the real life of St. Francis, which only adds further context and depth to the tale.
An emotional, captivating Christian story in verse.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9905262-1-6
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Dolan & Associates
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A poignant collection by a talented poet still in search of one defining voice.
A debut volume of poetry explores love and war.
Divided into four sections, Osaki’s book covers vast emotional territories. Section 1, entitled “Walking Back the Cat,” is a reflection on youthful relationships both familial and romantic. “Dying Arts,” the second part, is an examination of war and its brutal consequences. But sections three and four, named “Tradecraft” and “Best Evidence” respectively, do not appear to group poems by theme. The collection opens with “My Father Holding Squash,” one of Osaki’s strongest poems. It introduces the poet’s preoccupation with ephemera—particularly old photographs and letters. Here he describes a photo that is “several years old” of his father in his garden. Osaki muses that an invisible caption reads: “Look at this, you poetry-writing / jackass. Not everything I raise is useless!” The squash is described as “bearable fruit,” wryly hinting that the poet son is considered somewhat less bearable in his father’s eyes. Again, in the poem “Photograph,” Osaki is at his best, sensuously describing a shot of a young woman and the fleeting nature of that moment spent with her: “I know only that I was with her / in a room years ago, and that the sun filtering / into that room faded instantly upon striking the floor.” Wistful nostalgia gives way to violence in “Dying Arts.” Poems such as “Preserve” present a battleground dystopia: “Upturned graves and craters / to swim in when it rains. / Small children shake skulls / like rattles, while older ones carve rifles / out of bone.” Meanwhile, “Silver Star” considers the act of escorting the coffin of a dead soldier home, and “Gun Song” ruminates on owning a weapon to protect against home invasion. The language is more jagged here but powerfully unsettling nonetheless. The collection boasts a range of promising poetic voices, but they do not speak to one another, a common pitfall found in debuts. “Walking Back the Cat” is outstanding in its refined attention to detail; the sections following it read as though they have been produced by two or more other poets. Nevertheless, this is thoughtful, timely writing that demands further attention.
A poignant collection by a talented poet still in search of one defining voice.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-984198-32-7
Page Count: 66
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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