An ambitious poetry collection that will defy readers’ preconceptions of what a sonnet can be.
Weber’s debut features one-a-day sonnets that explore the quotidian and the divine.
The San Diego–based author plays with the strict structure of the sonnet form in this hefty collection while also addressing diverse subjects. She manages to pack plenty of personal experiences into the 14-line rhyme scheme, telling tales of missing the bus, enduring food poisoning, and longing for air conditioning. With a careful balance of humor and seriousness, Weber drops in references to pop-culture touchstones, such as the ice bucket challenge, popularized in 2014, and Harry Potter; other poems address political events, placing them in the modern era despite their antiquated form. “Ferguson” expresses bystander despair in lines such as “There’s nothing I can do, this I admit, / And nothing to say, but I’m saying it.” In “Hopeless,” the poet copes with the 2016 presidential election results by seeking comfort in “puppy kisses.” Weber also turns her gaze toward the natural world; in “Calypte anna,” she offers an evocative description of a bird: “A hummingbird, afluff in coat of green, / Magenta scarf, and iridescent wig, / Demanded the location of his queen.” In “Blood Moon,” she paints a vivid picture of a pair of sky-gazers: “My seat’s a folded blanket on wet grass, / Our sprinkler-dampened dogs upon our laps.” The author cheekily plays with themes and titles, from a Gabriel García Márquez reference in “One Hundred Seconds of Solitude,” about her love of libraries, to “Mising Leter Sonet,” in which she removes one or more letters from the last word of every line. Throughout these poems, she also reveals herself to be a classically trained soprano and dog lover. Some experiments don’t succeed, however, such as “An Extremely Juvenile Sonnet,” in which Weber toys with genitalia-themed humor: “They say the penis [sic] mightier than the sword, / But sometimes writing makes one’s conscience prick—.” An excessive use of footnotes also errs toward overexplanation.
An ambitious poetry collection that will defy readers’ preconceptions of what a sonnet can be.Pub Date: April 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-692-96045-5
Page Count: 406
Publisher: Burrito Books
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An emotional, captivating Christian story in verse.
Heidish (A Misplaced Woman, 2016, etc.) presents an account of St. Francis of Assisi’s life, as told from his father’s perspective in poetic form.
St. Francis is known as a saint who believed in living the Gospel, gave sermons to birds, and tamed a wolf. Over the course of 84 poems, Heidish tells her own fictionalized version of the saint’s journey. In his youth, Francesco is an apprentice of his father, Pietro Bernardone, a fabric importer. The boy is a sensitive dreamer and nature lover who sees “natural holiness in every living thing.” As an adult, Francesco decides to pursue knighthood, but God warns him to “Go back, child / Serve the master.” He joins the Church of San Damiano, steals his father’s storeroom stock, and sells it to rebuild the church. His furious father chains him in the cellar, and the bishop orders Francesco to repay the debt. Afterward, father and son stop speaking to each other; Francesco becomes a healer of the sick and a proficient preacher. After failing to broker a peace agreement during wartime, Francesco falls into depression and resigns his church position. He retreats to the mountains and eventually dies; it’s only then that Pietro becomes a true follower of St. Francis: “You are the father now and I the son / learning still what it means to be a saint,” he says. Heidish’s decision to tell this story from Pietro’s perspective is what makes this oft-told legend seem fresh again. She uses superb similes and metaphors; for example, at different points, she writes that St. Francis had eyes like “lit wicks” and a spirit that “shone like a clean copper pot.” In another instance, she describes the Church of San Damiano as a place in which “walls crumbled / like stale dry bread.” Following the poems, the author also offers a thorough and engaging historical summary of the real life of St. Francis, which only adds further context and depth to the tale.
An emotional, captivating Christian story in verse.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9905262-1-6
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Dolan & Associates
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A poignant collection by a talented poet still in search of one defining voice.
A debut volume of poetry explores love and war.
Divided into four sections, Osaki’s book covers vast emotional territories. Section 1, entitled “Walking Back the Cat,” is a reflection on youthful relationships both familial and romantic. “Dying Arts,” the second part, is an examination of war and its brutal consequences. But sections three and four, named “Tradecraft” and “Best Evidence” respectively, do not appear to group poems by theme. The collection opens with “My Father Holding Squash,” one of Osaki’s strongest poems. It introduces the poet’s preoccupation with ephemera—particularly old photographs and letters. Here he describes a photo that is “several years old” of his father in his garden. Osaki muses that an invisible caption reads: “Look at this, you poetry-writing / jackass. Not everything I raise is useless!” The squash is described as “bearable fruit,” wryly hinting that the poet son is considered somewhat less bearable in his father’s eyes. Again, in the poem “Photograph,” Osaki is at his best, sensuously describing a shot of a young woman and the fleeting nature of that moment spent with her: “I know only that I was with her / in a room years ago, and that the sun filtering / into that room faded instantly upon striking the floor.” Wistful nostalgia gives way to violence in “Dying Arts.” Poems such as “Preserve” present a battleground dystopia: “Upturned graves and craters / to swim in when it rains. / Small children shake skulls / like rattles, while older ones carve rifles / out of bone.” Meanwhile, “Silver Star” considers the act of escorting the coffin of a dead soldier home, and “Gun Song” ruminates on owning a weapon to protect against home invasion. The language is more jagged here but powerfully unsettling nonetheless. The collection boasts a range of promising poetic voices, but they do not speak to one another, a common pitfall found in debuts. “Walking Back the Cat” is outstanding in its refined attention to detail; the sections following it read as though they have been produced by two or more other poets. Nevertheless, this is thoughtful, timely writing that demands further attention.
A poignant collection by a talented poet still in search of one defining voice.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-984198-32-7
Page Count: 66
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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