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MURMURINGS

Elegant, subdued poems that offer a calm reflection on memory.

A collection of poems touches on memory, time, and place.

A retired specialist in world literature, Giskin (An Introduction to Chinese Culture Through the Family, 2001) delivers poetry that concentrates on small, impactful moments scattered across various corners of the world. Many of the sections in the collection reflect the loose sense of geography and wandering that tie the poems together, including “The City,” “Distant Skies,” and “Qin.” But even as he moves from China to “glacial valleys and small villages” in Europe, Giskin maintains a stillness in his pieces, centering them on specific memories and the sensory experiences they evoke. The millennia of history on a Greek island become a “goose-down quilt / in a / spacious house,” and a cabin from his childhood is “quietly resting / at the bottom / yet has the flavor / of wet leaves / chimney smoke / pancakes and love.” The poet also subtly explores failing memory to properly re-create moments; his apartment in New York City had an elevator he “cannot recall,” and to him, the most interesting gravestones at St. Paul’s Chapel are those that are blank, “washed clean by seasons of rain and cold.” Giskin connects this fleeting nature of memory to the immigrant experience, both through a grandmother who “could neither read nor write, / left Poland never again to see” and his own travels abroad, taking him to the Temple of Diana in Nîmes, France; the pyramids of Giza; and an earthquake in Greece. In that last example, Giskin writes of grabbing a stranger to achieve “the primal need we have to / know we are not ghosts / but flesh,” an idea that perhaps points to a weakness in the collection. His poetry is always beautifully serene—even in moments of violence or passion. But his writing becomes a long, hazy memory itself and will likely leave readers wanting something unexpected and loud to shake up the reverie. That tempest never truly arrives. The placid titles of some sections, such as “Moments,” “Autumn Winds,” and “Silent Forests,” are quite apt; readers wanting to get completely lost in such tranquil, ghostly atmospheres should appreciate Giskin’s consistency.

Elegant, subdued poems that offer a calm reflection on memory.

Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5255-0246-0

Page Count: 175

Publisher: FriesenPress

Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2018

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ONCE UPON A GIRL

Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.

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Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.

The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.

Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.

Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6

Page Count: 196

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019

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Endings

POETRY AND PROSE

Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.

A slim volume of largely gay-themed writings with pessimistic overtones.

Poe (Simple Simon, 2013, etc.) divides this collection of six short stories and 34 poems into five sections: “Art,” “Death,” “Relationship,” “Being,” and “Reflection.” Significantly, a figurative death at the age of 7 appears in two different poems, in which the author uses the phrase “a pretended life” to refer to the idea of hiding one’s true nature and performing socially enforced gender roles. This is a well-worn trope, but it will be powerful and resonant for many who have struggled with a stigmatized identity. In a similar vein, “Imaginary Tom” presents the remnants of a faded relationship: “Now we are imaginary friends, different in each other’s thoughts, / I the burden you seek to discard, / you the lover I created from the mist of longing.” Once in a while, short story passages practically leap off of the page, such as this evocative description of a seedy establishment in Lincoln, Nebraska: “It was a dimly lit bar that smelled of rodent piss, with barstools that danced on uneven legs and made the patrons wonder if they were drunker than they thought.” In “Valéry’s Ride,” Poe examines the familial duties that often fall to unmarried and childless people, keeping them from forming meaningful bonds with others. In this story, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hits Louisiana, Valéry’s extended family needs him more than ever; readers will likely root for the gay protagonist as he makes the difficult decision to strike out on his own. Not all of Poe’s main characters are gay; the heterosexual title character in “Mrs. Calumet’s Workspace,” for instance, pursues employment in order to escape the confines of her home and a passionless marriage. Working as a bookkeeper, she attempts to carve out a space for herself, symbolized by changes in her work area. Still, this story echoes the recurring theme of lives unlived due to forces often beyond one’s control.

Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.

Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-5168-3693-2

Page Count: 120

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: March 5, 2016

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