Endearing and inspiring despite clichés and weak points.
This collection of poems and accompanying essays explores the joy and pain of relationships.
In her debut work, Shaye compiles 15 poems that contemplate the challenges and benefits of the relationships in our lives. In both free verse and rhyme, her narrator yearns for a lover from a distance, casts aside a fickle friend, strives to reconnect with family and more. Many of the poems boast evocative descriptions in succinct lines. In “Blue Moment,” each stanza employs three lines describing the relationship, concluding with the revelation that this beloved person has passed away: “buckets of retreat— / volumes of safety— / slivers of deceit— / i’m missing you lately.” However, some of the poems are too simplistic, employing lists of clichés rather than memorable imagery or passages. The bland “A Wish,” for example, starts every line with the word “wishing”: “Wishing I was holding you... / Wishing you were here right now, or wishing I was there. / Wishing we were breathing from the same supply of air. / Wishing we were having some kind of secret love affair.” Despite their occasionally tired phrasing, the poems have a winning sincerity and openness—excluding the disturbing “How Do You Write A Poem?” which describes molestation, racism, suicide and self-harm in no uncertain terms, then concludes, “You have to hate yourself. / You have to love solitude. / You have to love your pen. / You have to live.” However, what sets Shaye’s poetry collection apart is the series of accompanying essays exploring each poem in greater detail. A tactic that initially seems indulgent, it actually proves quite charming. “A Closer Look: ‘Invisible’ ” explores that titular poem and inspires readers to develop their own confidence rather than worrying about what other people think. Yet other essays—such as “A Closer Look: ‘Blue Moment’ ”—are so positive that they seem at odds with the somber subject matter of their respective poems. Overall, this collection may not impress die-hard poetry devotees, but readers looking for easy-to-digest nuggets of motivation may savor it.
Endearing and inspiring despite clichés and weak points.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615909196
Page Count: 74
Publisher: Tasty Chuckle Publications
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
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
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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