Lighthearted poems for readers who adore felines.
A debut collection of poetry celebrates cats.
Melvin writes in the voice of Pusserina, his pet cat who is fated to express herself in verse. The title of the collection comes from recounted dreams in which she imagines herself to be a superhero. Many poems follow simple rhyme schemes and feature a singsong quality. “I’m a Cat,” for instance, sounds like an imitation of Dr. Seuss. There are also several limericks that do not quite fit into the traditional syllabic pattern of that literary form. Thus, readers might want to skim past the extremely short poems, such as this virtual throwaway titled “Tuxedo Cat”: “For a tuxedo cat, black and white / Is normal / I like this cat, for he / Is very formal.” While the upbeat poems are aimed at all feline lovers, their length, vocabulary, and subject matter seem especially suited to children. But there are assuredly some bright spots to be found for readers of all ages, like “The Door,” where Pusserina’s hesitation about going out or coming in takes on a deeper, pensive meaning, as suggested by the poem’s circular structure. Overall, the longer texts communicate more substantive stories through verse, such as “Haunted House,” a meditation on grief with an uplifting conclusion that supports the unique bond between cats and humans. Similarly, the author strongly refutes the stereotypes of felines as aloof and disinterested with an ode to Tara, a real-life superhero made famous in a viral video that showed her thwarting a dog’s attack on her 4-year-old human companion. Along the way, Melvin and Pusserina enthusiastically remark on various playthings: Easter eggs, Thanksgiving treats, Christmas trees, and piano keys. They also weigh in on issues like hairballs, paper versus plastic, the preponderance of feline names for sports teams, and negative representations of cats in cartoons, namely Sylvester and Tom. The handsome book features colorful illustrations by Albrecht (No, No, Sammy!, 2013) as well as quotations from prominent cat lovers, including Leonardo, Twain, Shakespeare, Hugo, and Kipling.
Lighthearted poems for readers who adore felines.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63393-351-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: northwood lake books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
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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