An eclectic poetry collection full of lofty spiritual insight but lacking some key presentational detail.
Sottile explores themes of nature, love, loss, and mortality in this collection of poems.
This wide-ranging compendium of poems, written from 1973 to 2024, takes in a broad swath of subject matter. The opening poem, “I See in Between,” features a sorrowful speaker who witnesses human suffering and seemingly documents it in art: “They make me sit on earth / All my life long / To pour my tears out / Tell it in song.” The book also contains multiple meditations on childhood that manifest themselves in poems like “Soaring Child,” which considers how painful childhood memories follow people like clouds. The mournful “Who Will Tell the Children? (Just a Picture Show)” reflects on the impact of animal extinction on future generations. Nature—and its similarities to humans—also seems to be a particular pet theme for the author. “Forgotten Sailor” compares roses to people, noting that though they grow together, they are each unique. A lone (but not lonely) speaker appreciates a calming view in “This Old Window.” “Moon Scape” finds the speaker greeting the moon as an “old friend.” The highs and lows of love are another focal point of the book, and romantic obsession is at the center of “Melody of Love,” which rhapsodizes, “If I could be your Sky / and you be my Clouds / I could be the Melody / That you sing aloud.” The speaker vows that his love will endure into old age in “In Memory of My Heart,” stating, “You’re my lover my best friend / Right till the very end.”
Sottile contemplates everyday moments and shares both joy and sorrow in this upbeat poetry collection. The book’s celebratory nature poems are a highlight, expressing awe in lines like “Almighty Lord it’s a dream come true! / Your earth is turning / There’s always anew.” Seasons are captured with beautiful detail, including “Spring’s Sleepy Eyes,” which describes “Constellations turning / Days grow warmer still / Sun fights winters darkness / Melting off the chill.” Figurative language is another strength the author exploits to the hilt; the ups and downs of life are represented as green fields and rocky roads in “Fields So Green (Rocky Road).” The author’s faith-based inclusions are subtle and effective, as in “Lonely Flower,” where God is compared to a bird who spreads seeds so no flower feels alone. Though the book’s ABAB rhyme scheme is basic, it’s effective and holds interest throughout. (“Time is a mirror with two sides to view / The past or the future. The old or the new.”) At times, however, the poet seems to contort the language to fit this rhyme structure in lines like “My heart will feel as if broken and these words will be awoken / These words are my promise, my token for our future ahead has been spoken.” The book also lacks consistent formatting and proper punctuation, imparting a less-than-professional vibe despite the sophistication of the verse itself.
An eclectic poetry collection full of lofty spiritual insight but lacking some key presentational detail.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798899221224
Page Count: 110
Publisher: Page Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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