by Original Clyde Aidoo ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2013
Raw, affecting lyric from an assured poet.
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Poems covering love, life, heart and home.
Aidoo’s new multigenre collection of verse and images provides no introduction, instead dropping readers into the deep end of his fluid poetry. Readers don’t know what’s going to happen next, but that’s part of the fun in this lively, bursting compendium. Most of the book consists of poetry, a musical free verse that’s even better spoken aloud. The rest is respectable paintings from a variety of artists, including competent oil paintings, some of which depict scenes from Chicago. But the real draw is Aidoo’s poetry. The author has many talents, most impressive of which is his remarkable versatility. In the hands of a lesser poet, the range of topics—the joys of loving a large woman, the anticipation of waiting for a new video game, the beauty of the pop star Shakira—would feel forced or even absurd. But Aidoo seamlessly weaves these and more together in a gorgeous, unexpected tapestry. His ability to integrate pop-culture references into serious verse without seeming flip or too clever is truly impressive, calling to mind Michael Robbins’ work in Alien Vs. Predator (2004). Aidoo’s style is equally strong: Diction is conversational without being casual, easy without seeming lazy. He catches the rhythms of speech—no small feat. One of his best moments arrives in a late poem called “The Grievance”—“So the deceased can rejoice that they are forgotten for hours, days, or even weeks at a time. They’d want the flower-givers to keep on walking…and begin that work on their own headstones.”—in which he subtly evokes our odd ambivalence about death and dying, all in approachable, unpretentious language. This book is the last of a trilogy, but let’s hope Aidoo isn’t done yet.
Raw, affecting lyric from an assured poet.Pub Date: March 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615694344
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Real Print for Real People
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by William J. Rewak ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2016
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That Rewak (The Orphan Bear, 2014, etc.) is a professor, a university chancellor, and a monk only makes the fact that he is also an accomplished poet more impressive.
It is difficult to talk about Jesuit poetry without invoking Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins was a monk, a spiritual seeker, and a poet responsible for some of the most moving, challenging English verse of the last two centuries. So it’s entirely fitting that Rewak—himself a Jesuit—calls out to his forebear in his new collection. “A New Task” is written in Hopkins’ memory, and in it, Rewak asks the poet, “Do you see, finally, after the dimness / that shadowed your black-robed walks / down lanes of half-opened eyes, / all the sentences left to be completed? / Is your pen busy with new, full-blown / wonders—stanzas that startle the saints?” Rewak’s own verse may not startle any saints, but it’s sure to please almost anyone else. But if Hopkins’ language is an ancient, gnarled oak, Rewak’s is a young birch, and his lines are smooth, white, and unbroken. Often flowing and conversational, his works are conceptually and emotionally ambitious but eminently readable. Take the humble, pristine “Rose”: “This little rose / is the best thing / I ever grew for you / on this small planet / you can take the dinosaurs / and mushrooms, the great / Himalayas, full of grandeur / (as an indication of My size) / but this thing I hold....” Here, the poet’s direct address and his coyly simple language remind us of the beauty of small things—even things so frequently praised as that red flower. Like Hopkins before him, Rewak addresses God less often than the beautiful, sublime world. But when he does turn his attention to religious matters, it’s with wit and insight. Here is “Verdict,” which is presumably about the trial of God: “They’ve put You on trial / I’m told: / it was whispered to me / proceedings are held tight / in a shuttered room… / but I notice the sun / still shines / because at heart You’re generous / and inclined to overlook petulance.” Would that all poets could write with such tact and humor.
Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5390-5255-5
Page Count: 232
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Ramesh Sharma ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2018
A well-intended celebration of Americanness that becomes mired in hyperbolic fervor.
Sharma (America Tattwamasi, 2016) explores American freedom in this collection of poetry.
In his previous book, the poet observed America through the lens of the Hindu Upanishads, with an emphasis on religion, politics, and universal spirituality. This second collection of more than 200 poems is “the continuation of the same vision, message, and mission,” he reveals early on. As a whole, it showcases an unswerving belief in American ideals; indeed, Sharma describes America, in his introduction, as representing “the supreme philosophy of freedom and liberty.” However, he also states that his lengthy, 52-page title poem is a lyrical attempt at “reinvigorating this great country” in the face of what he perceives as current “weakness and complacency.” Still, the poem portrays the nation as a wellspring of benevolent energy. Speaking directly to America itself, the narrator offers absurd exaggeration: “You are the one on whom is pinned the advancement of human / civilization, with all its sacredness intact.” He then turns a critical gaze toward people in politics, asking, “Why have our politicians relegated themselves to third world / demagogues? / Why are they twisting our sacred documents to suit their knavish / dispositions?” The result is a fervent cri de coeur that asks the amorphous American spirit to “arise and illumine the eyes of humanity,” as “It is time to bludgeon the dark that is trying to decapitate truth and / veracity.” Some readers may interpret these lines as revolutionary, aggressively nationalistic, or even colonialist in tenor, with their inference that everything that isn’t America is in darkness, waiting to be illuminated or crushed. In a later poem, the narrator declares, “The uncompromising advocate / Of racial harmony and tolerance, / O America, / I salute thee!” Sharma’s writing echoes the nigh-biblical, overspilling grandiosity of Walt Whitman’s literary style. However, there’s also a hint of zealotry here, and some readers, including those engaged in campaigning for racial equality in the United States, will likely balk at this collection’s assumptions of harmony and tolerance.
A well-intended celebration of Americanness that becomes mired in hyperbolic fervor.Pub Date: July 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5462-5150-7
Page Count: 358
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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