by Eileen Fox Wasser ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 10, 2016
A kinetic, if sometimes-overwrought, book of poems.
This lively poetry collection conveys the human condition in its lonely and triumphant moments.
In Fox Wasser’s posthumous debut compilation, a frazzled mother successfully manages a rainy day at home with her kids, a genie intrudes on reality, and a billboard lures shoppers. Her poems, spilling over with autobiographical details and mythological and biblical allusions, tell an understated story of an earnest, messy journey through life. These sympathetic, occasionally cynical, verses always circle back to the fragility of life, the sacredness of family, and the necessity of self-reliance; as “Oasis” concludes, “And when there is no one to warm me / from the cold, I seek my own fire.” The poems become increasingly philosophical, pondering the politics of ownership and the duality of the human soul. Some insights are lackluster, as in “Seesaw”: “Therefore, are war and peace truly compatible?” However, the author’s lyrical voice and sense of humor carry the poem “Fifteen Cents a Line”: “Come on, baby, fifteen cents a line. / The pulp juice and essence, / from the grape to the wine.” “Kaleidoscope,” the most visual piece, features standout lines with evocative imagery: “Hot yellow turns / searing me / as blue splashes / over my burns.” Often, the rhyme schemes are too simplistic, making the poems fall flat or appear trite; for example, “The Single Parent (Made in Heaven)” describes single parenthood as “a mockery” and rhymes it with “a crockery.” Poems such as “Cinderella Through the Looking Glass” describe ideas with unnecessarily complicated metaphors: “Laughter, the camouflage of tears, / assuages the missing caress // as the anonymity of the horde / hides my loneliness.” These tendencies ultimately detract from the fluidity of the poems and obscure their meaning. The best poems are the shorter, simpler ones, such as “Mirage,” which convey a depth of emotion and genuine pieces of wisdom: “I am forever fooled / by fire and light / … / Looking to the / heavens for love / and losing the earth.”
A kinetic, if sometimes-overwrought, book of poems.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5115-4343-9
Page Count: 142
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by J.C. Salazar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2018
A volume of poetry that shines when focused on the author’s experiences of race and culture.
A collection speaks in part to the poet’s Mexican-American heritage.
In these multifaceted poems, Mexico-born, Houston-raised Salazar (Of Dreams and Thorns, 2017) explores general human themes like love and war in addition to specific experiences as a person of color. The book begins with a sensual meditation on desire, featuring luscious descriptions of a lover, from lips “moist like youth” to the body’s “softest velvet” slopes. The poems shift to odes to cultural icons like the Tejano star Selena and Mexican-German painter Frida Kahlo as well as occasion pieces honoring his brother’s 40th birthday and a friend’s mother’s memorial service. The author hits his stride when he delves into identity. In “I Am Not Brown,” he contemplates the societal implications of skin tone and his inability to fit into the rigid category of Caucasian or Latino. “For white and black and brown alike / Are slaves to history’s brush strokes,” he writes. “Grateful for the Work,” perhaps Salazar’s loveliest poem, catalogs the day of a laborer, starting with an early morning awakening and following him as he toils in 100-degree heat, enjoys tacos from his lunch pail, buys beverages from a child’s lemonade stand, and returns home to an equally hard-working wife. The author then makes an abrupt turn toward Syria in a series of poems that condemn that country’s president, Bashar Hafez al-Assad. They serve as a rallying cry for Syrians and grieve for the murdered masses. Salazar’s closing poem, “Sons of Bitches,” is a clunky rant about a 20-year-old immigrant shot in the head by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent. The gratuitous violence and political theologizing are ill at ease with the intimate, personal experiences that preceded them, such as the fablelike “A Mexican is Made of This,” in which Salazar beautifully describes the “rainbows, bronze, backbone, butterflies” that his people embody.
A volume of poetry that shines when focused on the author’s experiences of race and culture.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9991496-3-8
Page Count: 166
Publisher: Bronze Diamond Productions
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
More by J.C. Salazar
BOOK REVIEW
by J.C. Salazar
by Kate Lee Diehl illustrated by Kathryn Dimenichi John Powell ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2015
Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
Diehl’s debut poetry collection showcases the arduous search for human connection and self-understanding.
In free verse poems that combine strong metaphors with prosaic passages, the poet wanders along a lifelong path of self-knowledge. She first describes it as a “pilgrimage…to accept what’s been deemed unworthy inside us,” and the trail leads to important insights. In a plainly stated yet necessary reminder, the author asserts that being human, despite the loneliness one may encounter, “is not a solitary pursuit.” Above all else, the book voices a desire for transparency in the self and in others. In “Clear Stream,” moving water illuminates objects within it, even as mystery waits at the bottom, and the water’s clarity corresponds to the speaker’s offering of his- or herself to view: “Here I am. // Come see me if you want.” Sometimes the tumble of words in these short stanzas suggests a pouring forth of injury: “It’s the show-stopping blow of loss upending a heart pain over pain till capacity for love regulates its beating.” Readers will understand a back story involving love and loss, difficulty in communication, sadness, and acceptance of children growing up. The poems gain strength from well-chosen accompanying images, including sketches and paintings by Dimenichi and colorful works by Jamaican-born painter Powell that enrich the verbal landscape. Several full-page images by each artist appear, suggesting a thematic connection or amplifying an emotion in a given poem. A richly textured, grand illustration of a tree by Dimenichi, for example, appears alongside a poem that celebrates the inspiration of such towering entities. A poem concerned with self-reflection joins a Powell painting of floating, twinned female forms. The figures seem to both depict and satisfy the speaker’s need to be seen, with their emphasis on mirror images, body doubles, and echoes of shapes. Even the windshield of a car can be a “two way mirror” behind which the driver is “invisible to life outside.” An explicitly female body is glimpsed in the sketches, and the warm, dreamlike compositions give it substance.
Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.Pub Date: July 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-304-13091-4
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.