An upbeat, life-affirming collection that’s a bit too personal and unpolished for general consumption.
Amusing, exhortative light verse and often highly personal occasional poetry.
These days, anonymity is a curiously conspicuous rhetorical choice for the author of a poetry collection, an effacement that draws attention to itself. However, if this particular nom de plume suggests a certain pretension, perhaps evoking fears of sententious navel-gazing, don’t fear: Fortunately, the Silver Scribe is more tongue-in-cheek than word-to-the-wise. Not that he forgoes moralizing, but the moralizing bits tend to be buried by the cornucopia of quirky occasional poems on subjects that arrest the poet’s flitting interest. In addition to the odd word of wisdom and paean to friendship or the charms of the fairer sex, he writes adoringly, humorously and sometimes quite earnestly of Princess Di, Wayne Gretzky, Ronald Reagan, Marlon Brando, a pigeon named Frank, Hurricane Frances, various friends, Mercury the Cat, Pope John Paul II and Elvis—especially Elvis. The King acts as a minor muse, usually inspiring poems that play on anagrams of “Elvis” in some way, which is about as deep as the wordplay runs. By definition, the poetry is doggerel, but good-hearted doggerel; meaning often plays second fiddle to rhyme: “Maybe you could call me a Jack of all Trades / Yet, in the morning my bed I have always made” or the indecipherable “As you drive around to receive your order / The girl takes your money and dares you to get bolder / But, you just thank her for how she works to get older.” Likewise, syntax often suffers when setting up forced rhymes: “As Pope of the entire World he shared his beliefs / He never thought of anyone as to him beneath.” Ultimately, though, it hardly matters, since this is neither a collection about poetic technique nor the weighty words of a silver-headed sage. As the precisely dated entries (implying an absence of revision) and the inclusion of impossibly personal references suggest, this is a glimpse into a private journal, into a joyful, if sometimes naïve, perspective centered on the belief that rhyming is better than whining and song will never lead you wrong.
An upbeat, life-affirming collection that’s a bit too personal and unpolished for general consumption.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2007
ISBN: 978-1434327598
Page Count: 212
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ambitious collection—which asks the world to stop its destructive ways and recognize the importance of Africans—that...
A narrator rails against racism and ignorance in this debut poetry volume.
Celly’s book contains hundreds of poems, most of them quite short, that describe a man who is living in a universe full of unenlightened individuals who cause destruction because of their lack of knowledge. In particular, they do not appreciate the contributions of people of African descent and confound the narrator with their bigotry, murderous ways, and inability to become edified. Nevertheless, he is self-assured and encourages others to follow him. “I am the maestro without the orchestra,” he writes in the volume’s opening poem, “A Maestro,” but notes that humans won’t have the privilege of discerning what’s in his mind “until they stop killing each other.” As the many poems in the volume progress, he begins to refer to himself as “The Negus,” an African emperor or king. He has the “noble blood of the Kongo Kingdom” in “Legendary Blood,” descended from warriors, geniuses, and visionaries. The tone of the poems overall seeks to be high-minded, with references to The Prince by Machiavelli and the French Revolution. There is also a call to emulate African rhythms, such as the Congolese rumba or the songs of Bob Marley, in “It Must Rhyme and Flow.” A mysterious “they” is often mentioned, though it is unclear if this is a reference to Western society, racists, or uneducated people. Yet the narrator, who has a commanding presence, does describe an overall war on Africa and encourages Africans to rise up. Moreover, he transcends race and the color barrier and desires something mystical. “I am not a Negro. I am renegade. I am the Negus straight from heaven,” he writes in “Defined by Color Only Not So Fast!” Celly’s expansive volume, which aspires to thoughtful and strong lines about humanity and its failings, is not hostile but uses grandiose language to ponder and decree. While there are hundreds of poems, many are quite vague and are just one line or a short paragraph. The work is not entirely an exercise in self-aggrandizement, but the collection’s message can get lost amid the numerous ambiguities and repeated proclamations.
An ambitious collection—which asks the world to stop its destructive ways and recognize the importance of Africans—that remains hampered by nebulous and unspecified pronouncements.Pub Date: July 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-68319-824-6
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An often gripping work with an engaging protagonist.
In Leatherman’s (Vanity Insanity, 2014) novel, an Omaha, Nebraska, high school teacher uncovers danger on campus as she grapples with challenges in her personal life.
Reeling from her ex-husband’s remarriage, Annie Day is distressed by the idea that her American dream has been tarnished. As the single parent of a son, Oliver, she certainly has her hands full. But when human bones are discovered on the high school campus where she teaches American literature, she faces a new set of worries. While police work to establish whose bones they are, she starts receiving strange, upsetting notes, including one that simply reads, “BE CAREFUL.” She finds refuge in her classroom, supporting her students by working with them after school, preparing them for college entrance exams, and helping them to relate class materials to their own lives. The mystery of the bones ultimately links to disturbing criminal activity at the high school. Readers will root for Annie and enjoy her inner dialogue, which features her disdain for poor grammar and her fondness for murder-mystery TV shows, especially Dateline. At points, though, the main story drifts. The novel features several side plots, such as Annie’s search for a ghost that she encountered on vacation and her attempt to deliver a letter she finds in the attic, revealing a shocking family secret of the house’s previous owners. Additionally, there are several chapters from the perspective of Annie’s cowboy relatives in the 1930s, relating a saga that’s intriguing enough to have been its own novel; however, they don’t directly enhance Annie’s story, which is strong enough without them. Leatherman’s prose is often excellent, as in a humorous, memorable scene during parent-teacher conference day, when a hungry Annie mentally compares parents’ personalities to snacks: an overbearing couple is undercooked dough, a saucy mother is a sour cherry ball, a sweet grandmother is cinnamon toast. The author tackles the main mystery plot with poignancy at the end of the story, but more in-depth exploration throughout would have been interesting.
An often gripping work with an engaging protagonist.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5376-5901-5
Page Count: 436
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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