A fine young poet digs deep.
A promising new voice delivers memories from his Russian youth and reflections on global religion in this crisp book of poetry.
Vladimir Nabokov was born in Russia, but he was raised in Europe and driven to the United States in 1940 as German troops advanced; it’s a fine irony of world literature that one of Russia’s greatest novelists spent most of his life in America. Perhaps the young poet Kulakov senses some of the same pressures; Kulakov was born in Russia but was educated in America, and his verse often engages the challenges and joys of his double origin; take, as one fine example, the “Song to Flying”: “In a neat English playground, near a worn brick sidewalk, / I mumble in mixed Russian, digging / pale hands into earth, burying sticks and rocks: / a time capsule to call mine in a far-off adulthood.” Today, the adult author is a student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, so it’s unsurprising that his mature poetry often engages religious themes. However, this is not a collection of stale, devotional poetry from a green seminarian. Kulakov is clearly eager to grapple with his own faith—and with the faith of others. “If We Burn Them All Together” is a troubling, evocative discussion of Islam’s role in the world that ends on a utopian note: “above Qur’an and Bible, two different heavens / rise-up and conjoin: it is rivers of milk, streets / of gold, hairless companions, and pearly gates.” At other times, readers learn how crucial his poetry is to his spiritual calling: “In my room, / I punch in letters mixing words / to bring-out sparks. And it is you, Yahweh.” Such frank confessions are much preferable to his occasional dips into the self-conscious jargon of a graduate student, as in “Morton Peak”: “Bodies heavy, I say, ‘The real Real is too traumatic? / for any being to behold.’ ” However, most of the time he avoids such patter, instead writing honest, evocative verse about spirituality and the life of the émigré.
A fine young poet digs deep.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
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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