An uneven but consistently intriguing collection.
Former attorney Cabado collects a lifetime of writing in this debut volume of poetry and drama.
The Filipino author, a lifelong writer of poetry and plays, saw most of his work destroyed in a 1989 fire. He went about searching for old drafts and copies in a recovery attempt, but the bulk of those papers were carried away in a 2008 typhoon. “What the fire didn’t devour,” he recalls in his introduction, “the flood washed away or buried in mud.” This book represents nearly all the material that’s left, covering some five decades of work, including Cabado’s first adolescent efforts; poems he wrote during four years as a political prisoner of former President Ferdinand Marcos’ regime; verses written as a free man, lawyer, and civil servant; and finally, late works, composed during retirement. The early writing possess an earnest frivolity, as in the playful “Seascape” (“seas / licking / sands / laughing / splashing stones / loving / living”). The prison poems ruminate on the nature of confinement and the loss of hope, as in “Liberation”: “Like a seed in a fruit / that has dropped from the tree / my freedom caresses its grave.” Other poems cover a range of topics, including skyscraper workers, marketplace observations, historical commentary, and the many dimensions of love. The play—his first of eight that he wrote, and one of only two that survives—is Orphans and Orchids, written during a 1975 house arrest. It tells of three women—a mother and her two adult daughters—who share a room in what appears to be a hospital. Soon, they must contend with a fourth, unwanted roommate. Cabado’s poetry is varied, encompassing both short lyrics and lengthy narratives. The longer (and later) efforts tend to be the strongest ones, offering readers frenzies of sound and imagery, as in “Meditations on an Earthen Ashtray”: “I will undin the night / with my insucked scream! / Perchance I’ll dream / of the delicate tinkling treble / of beaded beasts and Buddha bells, / bedouins charging muted hoofs / through the desert sand under the limpid light / of long-dead stars.” The verses are a bit mannered, however, and will likely appeal most to readers with romantic tastes. The three-act play is polished but somewhat hard to grasp; Cabado mentions that he was legally unable to speak about his imprisonment at the time of its composition, so it’s plagued by a certain vagueness in its language: “THERESA. (After a while, distant) When the rain stops, everything becomes noisy. All of a sudden. Like. . . guilt. . . after the tears. . . . / (Pause.) / LILY. The stars are beyond guilt. / THERESA. (Distant) And the rain never bothers the stars. / LILY. (Distant) And the rain never bothers the stars.” Still, the collection provides a lot for its readers to chew on, and many of them will be happy that some of Cabado’s work has made it permanently into print.
An uneven but consistently intriguing collection.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-67404-200-8
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A refreshingly blunt chorus of older women’s voices.
Meier (Ireland, Place Out of Time, 2017, etc.) and debut editor Barry, a psychotherapist, present an anthology of essays and poetry about female sexuality after age 50.
For some women, aging doesn’t mean the end of their sex lives but rather the beginning of new adventures. Liberation from pregnancy fears, child-rearing responsibilities, and menstruation allow them to fully indulge their own pursuit of pleasure. This anthology gives such women the opportunity to speak for themselves—and they do so with aplomb. Nonfiction author Bernadette Murphy discovers the orgasmic perks of learning to ride a motorcycle post-divorce. Lisa Mae DeMasi, whose work has appeared in multiple literary journals, finds that, with reiki practice and essential oils, achieving climax no longer feels like “trudging up Mount Washington with a dead body strapped to my back.” Writer and blogger Rita Bullinger describes how a communication technique called “Imago dialogue” has increased intimacy and sexual satisfaction with her lover: “Communication coupled with oral sex, I’m convinced, is what makes sex at sixty-six the best sex of our lives.” It’s not all excitement and discovery, however; writer Lola Fontay shares the unsettling experience of witnessing a man masturbating in front of her at the end of their first date. Poet Becky Dennison Sakellariou considers the legacy of silence around women’s desire: “A woman like me is invisible, if she is not, / she should be, an anathema, a sin.” But many writers here use humor to talk about the havoc that aging can wreak: “Just when we have our act together the warranty goes out on the equipment,” says author and professional speaker Sally Franz in her hilariously prescriptive essay “Tweaking Sex After Fifty.” The authors also often address sex with tact and sensuality: “Sometimes then, long-married / bodies, after stuttering into sleep, / curve into long slumbers of silk yesses, / yesses loud enough to waken dreams,” writes poet Brenda Yates. Toward the end, the bad online dating stories do become a bit repetitive. But there’s a diverse array of perspectives here, each unique enough to keep readers intrigued.
A refreshingly blunt chorus of older women’s voices.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9990994-4-5
Page Count: 190
Publisher: Weeping Willow Books
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wise, kind and lively verse that truly “dances to a tune that’s / gloriously redeeming / of anger, hate, and envy. / It’s an...
Engaging lyric poetry that manages to be sensual and cerebral, fun and profound.
Readers willing to dig deeper than the work of poets Derek Walcott, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Anthony Joseph will find that exciting new worlds of Caribbean poetry await. Although some lesser-known Caribbean writers tend to get bogged down in the exotic fecundity of their island landscapes, others write with a grace and steadiness that highlights personal experience within the larger context of culture and environment to reveal something universal. Trinidadian novelist, painter and poet Drayton (The Crystal Bird, 2012, etc.) most decidedly falls into the latter category. Her personal poems often focus on singular moments in her past, yet her evocation of the slippage between past and present, of how we manage to exist in both times simultaneously, speaks directly to readers. The exploration of how “time…magically overlaps generations” pervades this collection. Her narrators are buffeted by nostalgia but are never fatalistic or cloying; instead, they treasure the past and the present as a single fabric of interwoven threads. One narrator, for instance, revisits a memorable beach and finds that the “scenery I knew has all but gone, / except for the sea. / Longing and waiting, I dream of the days / that never can be again. / The sea waits while I dream a dream / where I stand on the balcony of this precious day.” Drayton invests symbols with a similar complexity; the titular brown dove, for instance, is at once a symbol of maternal devotion, sexual allure, rebellion and quiet endurance, and is rife with gender and racial resonances. Occasionally, her more contemplative poems suffer from excess erudition, and she is sometimes prone to distracting alliteration, but she also delivers unmatched similes such as, “The morning stormed my day / like a drunken party crasher / with streams of gold and white ribbons / coming through the window.”
Wise, kind and lively verse that truly “dances to a tune that’s / gloriously redeeming / of anger, hate, and envy. / It’s an awesome authority / with boundless energy.”Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2012
ISBN: 978-1478160045
Page Count: 120
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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