Moving verse that reaches for the stars.
When Duckhorn (Flapping Soul, Words in Verse, 2013, etc.) looks up at the night sky, she sees angels and aliens; she tries to pull both down from the heavens in this poetry collection.
In the last moments of Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the astronaut David Bowman, floating far from Earth, gets one last message off to Mission Control: “Oh my God—it’s full of stars,” he famously intones before breaking off. Dave’s quote is enigmatic. Is he seeing God? An alien life form? Both? Whatever the case may be, 2001 is one of the most famous artworks in which religion and sci-fi collide—in which humans’ fascination with God and their attraction to the stars mingle and merge. Duckhorn’s new book features a similar mingling, and it is clear that in her work, space and heaven might be one and the same. In an early poem, “Ode to Orion’s Belt,” reflections on the constellation give way to thoughts about the deity: “Beckoning home to our ancestors / Shedding down life, if you will / Beckoning connect these dots / They were poured out in the Big Bang’s spill. / Don’t forget the ultimate monumental God / The God that improves all finds.” Then later on, in “Shreds of Evidence,” “galaxies swirl[ing] in spindles” become “meditation[s] of the God / Who put one universe on his shelf.” Clearly, the poet loves big thoughts, but it is to her credit that her own meditations seldom float off into the ether. She writes grounded, substantial poetry that both provokes and inspires. If there is any weakness in this truly original collection, it is the poet’s diction, which is occasionally nonstandard—and sometimes just head-scratching. One poem opens “Out of the darkness of the watchful night / Arrive the perpetrators of delight.” One may perpetrate a crime—but seldom a “delight.” Another begins “In the spew of the big bang / Space became / All inhabitants of the heavens / Had roots that grace blamed.” “Spew” is not a noun—at least not formally—and its connotation as vomit seems ill-suited for her lofty themes.
Moving verse that reaches for the stars.Pub Date: May 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5245-0346-8
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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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