SEASONS OF THE SOUL

A collection of poems and artworks offers odes to love and its related feelings.

What are the four seasons of the soul? According to Kaur, they are different from those of the calendar year, though no less varied or intense in their weather and flora. This book dedicates a section to each. “The Season of Longing” is full of poems about loneliness, confusion, yearning, and fantasizing. “Oh this seductive / beauty / of self pity, / i want to wear / it so elegantly / on my skin,” writes the self-aware romantic speaker of one poem. “The Season of Remembrance” is a time of memory, indecision, recognition, and mystery: “Where will i go without you my love? / my heart has mysteriously chosen / to follow the fragrance of your soul.” “The Season of Love” is one of passion, joy, lust, and agony: the highest highs and the lowest lows. “He has called me / to dissolve in / this oneness,” the author writes in one poem. “Oh such beautiful / is this union. / i have myself / turned into love.” The abbreviated “Season of Enlightenment” is reflective, finding lessons in the pain of past mistakes while growing stronger for future seasons. “In every moment i am only returning to myself,” begins one short poem. “The autumn leaf is returning to the spring.” The poems are generally short, never titled, and sometimes presented with as many as three or four per page. As a result, they tend to flow in and out of one another, giving readers the sense of an ongoing (if fragmentary) soliloquy on the part of one woman in love. There are some sharp lyrics here, particularly among the shorter pieces. Still, Kaur takes a kitchen sink approach. Every other page is a piece of art, most frequently an altered photograph of leaves or flower petals with words written on them. These feel quite disposable, and make the poetry feel rather disposable by association. Some of the words drawn on Johnny’s images, oddly, are just the titles or choruses of songs: “Can’t help falling in love with you” (Elvis Presley); “This must be love” (Phil Collins); “Truly madly deeply” (Savage Garden). Fans of intense, if sentimental, love poetry will find occasional diamonds here. But they will have to pick them out of the rough.

An expansive, uneven collection of romantic sentiments organized around the motif of seasons.