Inventive verses document both coming-of-age and coming to grips with illness.
Defibaugh’s debut collection features stylistically and thematically diverse poems written over his 16 years in a wheelchair.
Diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy at age 4, Defibaugh began writing poetry when he was confined to a wheelchair in 1999 at age 13. This long span of composition—nearly 16 years—accounts for the variety in form and tone. Clichéd end rhymes (sound/ground; smile/while), repetitive structures (each stanza of “The Life” begins with “I miss”), and haikus might represent an amateur stage, ceding to more mature verses that prioritize original imagery and sound techniques. Many poems dwell on beginnings and endings. In “The Bar,” for instance, Defibaugh remembers his first beer—“A bubbled bread down my raspy throat.” Meanwhile, “Father?” depicts the death of a simplistic faith, the pun “passing their sense in the basket” implying that worshipers must leave reason at the door. The collection maintains a careful balance between levity and seriousness. “2012” imagines bovine revenge in quirky comic verse: “Cows will take over one day, I swear!” “Mankind,” on the other hand, deplores violence but posits a peaceful force poised to overcome it: “yet, the dove, silent and swift, soars above / with seemingly endless love.” Memorable metaphors include “causing the soul to loosen its cuffs of distress” and “crows are playing / percussion on my roof / with little drumstick feet.” In a long narrative of his father’s heart condition, Defibaugh uses “HD” as clever shorthand for clarity of memory and deploys alliteration to track optimism breaking through: “Dawn came— / as did decent news. / I could delay my dreaming in dark hues. / Dad came home.” In “The Photograph,” homonyms (pieces/peace) and an internal half rhyme (dimmed/whims) show sonic progression beyond the dogged end rhymes of previous poems. References to the author’s condition are scant, although “Most Dynamic Parts of a Wheelchair” contends that many fail to see the individual beyond the disability, while sporting-themed poems such as “Marathoner’s Reincarnation” mourn lost physical fitness.
Inventive verses document both coming-of-age and coming to grips with illness.Pub Date: March 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-1497515079
Page Count: 66
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A collection of heartfelt but nebulous and uninvolving rhapsodies to the sublime.
A man communes with all manner of natural and supernatural phenomena in these effusive poems.
Merrell, an avowed mystic, groups these 160-odd poems, each a page or so, in sections whose headings—“Spiritual Awareness Beyond the Physical,”—hint at the “majickal” New-Age themes they explore. In them, angels are everywhere, singing and fluttering, herding the souls of volcano victims to heaven, griping about their labors, sprinkling unseen blessings and inspiration all about. There are fantasy elements, including cats that fight for justice and “a good-hearted dragon who loved children and would put / His life on the line to save them.” There are pastorals galore, some glossy (“I shall get high on the fresh air / And go for a long walk / In the morning dew”), some suffused with eco-concern (“I am like the water….But like all good things on Earth / I’m being consumed at an alarming rate”). Birds are ubiquitous, usually soaring above mountains but sometimes waddling like penguins (“They slide on the ice / And dance in the snow / When they play about / It’s quite a show”). And no matter its subject or initial mood, virtually every poem thrums with unprovoked exultation: “All alone again / Except for the company of Nature / Surrounded by peace / And Heavenly love.” The author has a haphazard but conventional approach to rhyme and meter, so his verse often has the singsong feel of pop music, from the disco-inflected “Good News” to the heavy-metal trudge of the downbeat “Walking Dead.” Merrell’s language is charged with an intense lyricism, but the effect is rather liturgical; his incessant invocations of nonspecific love and divine radiance feel more generic and monotonous than uplifting. (The inclusion of black-and-white renderings of his busy, primitivist paintings adds some visual interest to the volume.
A collection of heartfelt but nebulous and uninvolving rhapsodies to the sublime.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-1432776794
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Outskirts Press Inc.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A readable but occasionally awkward set of starter poems.
A heartfelt debut collection of poetry and photography.
In an author’s note, Herold writes that after she heard the music of contemporary Christian songwriter David M. Bailey in church, she “found solace in reading his lyrics” and found herself “thinking in rhyme.” The result is this slim volume of 21 poems with accompanying photographs. The verses reflect the author’s responses to family life, loss, and the natural world and her place in it. They sometimes contain awkward word choices (“down my sodden face endless tears did roll”), but Herold’s sincerity still comes through, as when she explains in an author’s note, “My journey to understand and know God, and to know why I believe what I believe, began with my parents deaths.” She presents poems in varying styles, often free-form with copious ellipses; “One Will Stay, One Will Go,” however, ends with a grammatically casual touch that strains for rhyme and belies the serious subject: “my mom . . . she go, / her last breath, we did not know.” (Apparently inspired by e.e. cummings, Herold often eschews capital letters for her initial lines.) The collection shows flashes of humor and keen observation, as in “I Mowed The Lawn,” in which the narrator sees doves and a bunny, steps in poop and runs out of gas. A few poems addressed to birds particularly stand out: “Don’t Move,” is directed to a bluebird whose photo the narrator wants to take; “Stay Awhile” addresses a hawk (“tell me ’bout the skies”), and in “Free,” the narrator apparently tells a bird about a memory, “something i use to be. / free.” The collection’s vibrant photographs, rich with color, seem more sophisticated than the poems, which might have been enriched by musical accompaniment.
A readable but occasionally awkward set of starter poems.Pub Date: May 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-48173-208-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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