This precise, melodious poem about two ancient civilizations could benefit from notes for the uninitiated.
This first part of an epic poem introduces the royal families of ancient Greece and India and reveals their burden of responsibility.
This ambitious debut work seeks to reanimate the worlds of two very different ancient civilizations over the course of 24 books. Part 1 consists of the first eight books in the series and opens in Greece with an envoy arriving at King Solon’s palace with news of a great flood. Instructing a disgruntled Prince Diokles to watch over his lands, Solon gathers his troops and, at sunrise, heads east for the flood zone. Accompanied by Meletus, a great fighter, and his son, Elasus, Solon aims to provide aid to the poor souls whose world has been crushed by the wrath of Poseidon. They meet Alanam, a wise old man who tells of how thieves descended on his town, slit his wife’s throat, and took his son. On learning this, Meletus vows to return Alanam’s son and seek revenge. The narrative then shifts to India and introduces the royal family headed by King Sarvagya, including Queen Radhasati, Prince Dharmajyoti, and princesses Esha and Isani, whose luxuriant lives at first seem effortless, yet appearances prove deceptive. Set in the period following the Trojan War and the flood of Dwaraka, this poem may be difficult to follow for those unfamiliar with Greek mythology and the Sanskrit epic of ancient India, the Mahabharata. Background information is not forthcoming, and Bhattacharya’s text would greatly benefit from annotation. But the language is richly detailed and evocative of classic epic poetry, from Beowulf to Gilgamesh. When describing the “Dark Riders,” a band of feared warriors, the poet writes: “The faces—horrid faces—that are scarred / With marks and scabs that bleed a ghostly pus / As white as snow when struck with jagged spears, / The bane of gods that gave them death in life.” The passage is utterly captivating and draws parallels with Milton’s revered description of archfiend Lucifer in Paradise Lost. Bhattacharya is a talented and elegant writer who is breaking new ground by fashioning an epic poem from this little-known story. Illustrated throughout with full-color artwork by debut illustrator Fabre, the result is a lavishly described adventure that spans continents.
This precise, melodious poem about two ancient civilizations could benefit from notes for the uninitiated.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 122
Publisher: Global Academy of Population Health
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fine anthology of some of the best contemporary poetry around.
Fresh new writers rub elbows with past masters in this scintillating collection of verse.
Under the label “New Neo-Realist,” Lark, editor of the Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities, assembles a collection of narrative poems that usually feature frank engagement with ordinary life; a modern, colloquial idiom; and emotion leavened by irony, astringency, and flashes of humor. That leaves room for a huge range of subjects, styles, and moods. Erika Meitner’s “Wal-Mart Supercenter” contrasts the stores’ sublime friendliness with the police-blotter hell surrounding them (“A couple tried to sell their six-month-old for twenty-five bucks / to buy meth in the Salinas Walmart parking lot”), and L.W. Milam’s surreal “Tootie Fruit ME and Ass-Grasp LA” invokes “crowds of crying turtles, & / Peasant armies of hymn-singing, drug-ridden geckos.” Christopher Kennedy’s mordantly funny “Riddle of Self-Worth” laments that “My pet vulture has the disconcerting habit of staring / at the clock and then at me”; Howard Nemerov’s lyrical “Goldfish” spotlights the creatures’ “Waving disheveled rags of elegant fin / Languidly in the light”; and Tom Crawford’s “Companion to a Loon” levels a matter-of-fact elegy: “Listen bird, I’m past making death sad. / The tide has no time for wakes / or tragedies. We’re either coming in / or going out.” The volume contains an especially strong set of poems by women, including Kate Gale’s agonized “What I Did Not Tell Anyone,” in which a new mother confides “That I felt my whole family / greedily feeding off me. / That my body felt stolen. / That I felt like Russia during all the wars / troops tramping over me on their way to Moscow,” and Christine Hamm’s bitterly whimsical “Signs You Are Ovulating”: “As you apply mascara / in the bathroom, your eyes slit, / a crow hops onto your shoulder, / and whispers, right here, now.” Lark juxtaposes works by well-known legends, such as Allen Ginsberg, Philip Larkin, e.e. Cummings, and Langston Hughes, as revealing counterpoints to the newer poems. Unlike the strings of cryptic non sequiturs in much Master of Fine Arts—bred poetry, these poems are decidedly reader-friendly without compromising their literary artistry. Along with their inventive language and dazzling metaphor, their accessibility and immediacy pack a wallop.
A fine anthology of some of the best contemporary poetry around.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-917320-58-3
Page Count: 202
Publisher: MHO & MHO Works
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A sexy, bittersweet reverie of love relayed in brief, powerful bursts of poetry.
A breathtaking collection of tender poems about love and loss.
Darlington (China Bus, 2017, etc.) is a man of few words, but in this slim book of untitled verse, he proves that those few words are enough. He depicts love as “a feast of goosebumps / laid out for curious taste buds” and “a party / posted signs: / NO RE-ENTRY.” He woos readers with a speaker’s recollections of staying up all night reading The Love Poems of Lord Byron with a beloved and later finding torn-out pages from that volume hidden in other books. Another speaker reminisces about a girl who likes “small tomatoes / as they pop in her mouth / simple cotton undies / and a good pizza crust.” Yet another poem tells of a weekend camping trip, complete with mushroom foraging and a visit from a bear at breakfast. Even when a speaker is in a relationship, he senses its inevitable end; one poem discusses keeping written tabs of a love’s delicious details: “now my house is / full of such notes / so many that in a / strong breeze / they’re like butterflies / releasing from a / garden / each one / some part of you.” When a relationship ends, a sorrowful speaker seeks the advice of the sun, the moon, and the sea in a poem that offers solace but no answers. Darlington is a master of brevity, and each poem in this collection is like a time capsule, packed with nostalgia and sensual description. Of a secretly kept photograph, he writes, “You are flushed from sex and / the afternoon sun runs like butter / down your spine.” Even the sparsest poems are explosively potent, such as: “stay / like this / a moment / our costumes fallen to the floor.” Darlington takes full advantage of white space on the page, effectively playing with line breaks and indents to create a game of hopscotch for the eyes while simultaneously filling the soul.
A sexy, bittersweet reverie of love relayed in brief, powerful bursts of poetry.Pub Date: May 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71905-049-4
Page Count: 70
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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