A droll and challenging verse exploration of a seldom-read religious tale.
A collection of poetry presents a sendup of an unusual creation story.
In 1945 in the Egyptian desert, a trove of ancient scrolls was found that changed the way people think about early Christianity. These scrolls came to be known as the Nag Hammadi Library, and some scholars believe that they represent the teachings of a variant brand of Christianity now known as Gnosticism. Among these texts is The Apocryphon (or The Secret Book) of John, which tells a story of the creation of the world that is very different from the one many readers know from the Bible. At the core of this new saga is the construction of the body of Adam by 74 angels. And it is this arcane tale that serves as the foundation for Lass’ (A Lean Against the Wheel, 2015) endlessly surprising new collection of verse. The volume takes its structure from John’s version of the creation of Adam; accordingly, there are 74 poems here—one for each part of the first man’s body. Thus poem 18, “The Left Shoulder,” reads in part: “The clavicle a bulwark, / A strut from shoulder blade to sternum, / Favorite perch for devils plotting a soul’s corruption.” And poem 58, “The Right Thigh,” opens: “The right thigh is the thigh / Of ages. When you lift this thigh, / You will know that you are dealing / With quality. Let’s talk about this / For ten seconds. Any longer, / And I get bored.” These last lines bring out the collection’s greatest strength: its humor. Lass’ tone throughout the book is by turns clever, funny, and sarcastic; these are, after all, burlesques. So readers expecting the somber sounds of Scripture should be (delightfully) surprised by the poet’s cheeky wit. But don’t let the laughs fool you: This volume offers complex poetry with remarkable allusive depth. Lass dives down into Greek, biblical, and Gnostic myth here, and those looking for a pleasant diversion may wish to search elsewhere; in other words, the poet’s most obvious ancestor is T.S. Eliot, not Mary Oliver. Yet readers willing to put in the effort should find that secret treasures abound.
A droll and challenging verse exploration of a seldom-read religious tale.Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 157
Publisher: FutureCycle Press
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
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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