Not all the verses here produce the same spark, but certainly enough do to warrant a look.
Meditations and observations from a young writer who died much too early.
Two short forewords provide biographical information to contextualize this collection of 46 poems, each less than a page in length. The book divides the verses into seven thematic sections, including “Light,” “Outcries,” and, sadly, “Last Poems.” Gesner passed away at the age of 30 from an unspecified illness that lasted 13 years. Readers will have to determine for themselves whether the circumstances of her life will affect their appreciation of her work. Still, it’s hard to downplay the fact that she also endured the loss of her father when she was only 6 years old. The poem dedicated to him reads in its entirety: “A few sun-drenched mornings / A child’s memory erased / A touch, a gesture, a forgotten face.” The length and schematic nature of the text reflect his fleeting presence in her life as well as her acute sense of loss. There are hits and misses in this volume; overall, though, it has an impressive, undeniable depth of feeling. For instance, “Hands on Thanksgiving Day” presents the breaking of the wishbone as the passing down of tradition to different generations. In it, Gesner compares the rough hands of an older relative and the smooth hands of a youngster to different parts of the turkey—symbolism that’s perhaps a bit obvious but nonetheless powerful. “More Than Clouds and Words” features more hand imagery as it describes a girl “who often fetched water / with blossom-white hands / that shook with pain from the bite / pail handles touch.” Here, the author nicely represents a common physical sensation while also suggesting a burden beyond the literal. In “So Deep a Dark,” she portrays night as a shroud and writes: “The eye will place a period / before the sentence is complete.” This statement could symbolize for readers the loss of Gesner’s talent before it was able to develop more fully. However, she also concludes the poem with a hopeful reminder that morning always comes.
Not all the verses here produce the same spark, but certainly enough do to warrant a look.Pub Date: March 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-615-80306-7
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Catherine Pratt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.
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
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