A stunning collection that embraces both the sensuality and the profound meaning of small moments.
A volume of poetry focuses on beauty and surrender.
In his poems, Rivers encourages readers to trust the natural order of the cosmos, to let go of unhappiness, and to cherish the present. “Refugees Welcome” recalls “the road, your shoes, the bread, the wine, the good soup carried by kind hands” that are part of a relocation. In “High Road,” he gently coaxes readers to consider “the cartography of your choices / that seemed before to hold / no pattern—the direction of / your footsteps, how / they brought you here at last.” He tells readers that there is no such thing as the self in “Seeking Passage.” He examines the futility of resistance in “Layers” and the unhelpfulness of blame in “Anchor.” He tries his hand at haiku in “Oregon.” He drops readers into different environments, from the chilly steps of a university to the cozy interior of a cabin. Reinvention and resurrection are recurring themes. The fragility and fleetingness of life also underlie many of Rivers’ poems. Ultimately, his book is about remembering to live life fully and accept the present situation, asserting that the goal is “no embrace, no rejection, / to neither cling nor condemn.” No detail is too small for the author; in his poems, he pauses to contemplate things as seemingly insignificant as flowers that grow from a crack in the ground and a bag of plums left by a friend. His nature descriptions are evocative and rich. In “California,” he vividly recalls how “waves of solar gold hurl themselves against the mountains, shameless, reckless” in the coastal wetlands. He is philosophical without being overanalytical. His poems are steeped in wisdom that emanates from lines like “Take your time, that’s what it’s there for. Walk to the ends of the earth.” That said, some passages, like “Sharpen the necessary tools, shed what is no longer useful, take inventory,” veer dangerously close to motivational speaker territory but thankfully stop before they get there.
A stunning collection that embraces both the sensuality and the profound meaning of small moments.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 77
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Breathtakingly magical.
A powerful homage to the natural world, from England by way of Canada.
Combining poetic words (somewhat reminiscent of Mary Oliver’s poetry in their passion for the natural world) with truly stunning illustrations, this unusually beautiful book brings to readers the magic and wonder of nature. This is not a book about ecology or habitat; this is a book that encourages readers to revel in, and connect with, the natural world. Focusing on a particular subject, whether it be animal, insect, or plant, each poem (rendered in a variety of forms) delivers a “spell” that can be playful, poignant, or entreating. They are most effective when read aloud (as readers are encouraged to do in the introduction). Gorgeous illustrations accompany the words, both as stand-alone double-page spreads and as spot and full-page illustrations. Each remarkable image exhibits a perfect mastery of design, lively line, and watercolor technique while the sophisticated palette of warms and cools both soothes and surprises. This intense interweaving of words and pictures creates a sense of immersion and interaction—and a sense that the natural world is part of us. A glossary encourages readers to find each named species in the illustrations throughout the book––and to go one step further and bring the book outside, to find the actual subjects in nature. Very much in the spirit of the duo’s magisterial The Lost Words (2018), this companion is significantly smaller than its sprawling companion; at just 6.5 by 4.5 inches when closed, it will easily fit into a backpack or generously sized pocket. “Wonder is needed now more than ever,” Macfarlane writes in the introduction, and this book delivers it.
Breathtakingly magical. (Poetry. 6-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4870-0779-9
Page Count: 120
Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2020
An odd but sometimes-moving imagining of the nocturnal thoughts of the presidents of the United States.
A fanciful look at the dreams of U.S. presidents throughout history.
Phillips, a painter and multimedia artist, offers readers a mix of fact and fiction in a book that’s not so much about the inner lives as it is about the sleeping lives of America’s leaders. Working backward from Donald Trump to George Washington (including separate essays for each Grover Cleveland administration), Phillips’ essays imagine each man’s dreams about various subjects, include his childhood, his parents, and sex. Each essay attempts to capture the personality of the president at hand, and some bring in the viewpoints of other people, as in a dialogue between John and Abigail Adams or the musings of Zachary Taylor’s horse, Whitey. The chapter on Gerald Ford has a blank space in lieu of an essay, while Millard Fillmore, who was also not elected to the office of president, gets a full examination. The essays’ focuses aren’t always what one might expect; for example, John F. Kennedy’s essay is about living under the shadow of his father’s ambitions, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s is about the women in his life. This multimedia coffee-table book is full of the author’s own full-color paintings and illustrations, painted in styles ranging from surreal to abstract, and their effectiveness varies. Mainly, though, this book highlights the challenges of blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. In his quest to enter the presidents’ dreams, Phillips generally gets the history right and does a good job of capturing the essence of many presidential personalities and relationships. However, some of the sexual references can be overly graphic, as can some bodily descriptions, such as one about Cleveland’s testicles. As a result, this book can be unsettling at times. Still, its imaginativeness makes one wonder what the author would have made of the dreams of the current president, who defeated the man who called him “Sleepy Joe.”
An odd but sometimes-moving imagining of the nocturnal thoughts of the presidents of the United States.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-57-861384-0
Page Count: 215
Publisher: Black Book
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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