Sharp as a razor but solid as stone, Mandolini-Pesaresi’s (Grecian Vistas, 2012, etc.) poetry offers subtle charms for refined tastes.
The title of this potent collection of verse offers a tension: the immovable hardness of marble and the fluid action of a wave. A similar tension drives the poetry inside, which is often beset by productive contradictions. Foremost among them is the poet’s balance between his language’s narrow precision and the remarkable breadth of his frame of reference. There is some of Emily Dickinson in his style, and like the belle of Amherst, he writes brief poems; few stretch past 60 or 70 words, and most fit into a handful of concise stanzas, but they pack a punch. The entirety of one untitled piece reads, “When only a tree be left and grief / Has shaved the head and eyes of man / In the godly twilight / A silent cloud will trap moonlight / Until on eyes of stone / From cracked skies / dawn breaks.” There’s much to admire in such economical diction, from the grief that uncannily shears not only a head, but also “eyes,” to the enticing mystery of “godly twilight.” Mandolini-Pesaresi has a Ph.D. in Italian literature, and his broad knowledge base lends his writing a rich, allusive texture. In “Safinah,” for example, he quotes the dying words of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, who requests passage on the ship Aphinar: “`Aphinar, ‘Aphinar … / Lonely name in the dreamer’s eyes / Vague as a half-forgiven memory.” Elsewhere, in “The Cup-bearer Girl,” he closes with a mention of Shams-e Tabrîzî, the lover and mentor of the Sufi poet Rumi: “Nowhere to hide the breeze / Effendi of hoisted hopes, / Hailéd at last, Shams-e Tabrîzî.” Such a broad purview gives the author many fallow fields from which to draw material; he digs deep, unearthing satisfyingly weighty poetry.
Fine literature from a literary critic.
Pub Date: March 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1480265523
Page Count: 76
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
