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The Merit of Light

POEMS BY STEPHEN RIFKIN

A promising, if uneven, debut from a poet whose work will continue to mature and evolve.

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A debut collection of poetry inspired by the author’s relationship with his wife and their time living on an island in Maine.

Rifkin’s poems are heavily influenced by nature. In the preface, the author notes that he and his wife lived on an island when he was writing, and he meditates on everything from the changing seasons to the tempestuous tides. His often melancholic musings communicate both the beauty and isolation of island life, and his wife’s simple but lovely sketches enhance the poems, making them even more evocative. The illustration of birds flying over a moonlit ocean, which accompanies “Tides For the Moon,” is especially pretty. Although the collection contains some love poems, including the very romantic “In Love,” many are more impressionistic than overtly emotional. In the beautiful “Of Irises,” the author displays his playful, creative skills with language: “in a garden / at dusk / blades stem and bud or now stars / bluish and blush.” His attempts at more colloquial expression are less successful. In “Arabic Calligraphy,” he writes, “There is much that is silly about Arabic / calligraphy / And a lot that isn’t.” Such lines sound a bit clumsy, as if the same thoughts could be conveyed more artfully and economically. The collection’s closing series of three poems, together titled “Views of Italy,” strikes a more satisfying balance between a narrative style of verse and rich, thoughtful word choice. In “A Fury in the Trees of Tuscany,” Rifkin writes, “Yet there was beauty, too, to be fair, / the fat-cheeked children, and the young mothers, / fair-skinned and dark, and not just blood on / the walls, / the tatter of a flag stuck to a dying horse.”

A promising, if uneven, debut from a poet whose work will continue to mature and evolve.

Pub Date: May 16, 2014

ISBN: 978-1499350289

Page Count: 88

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: June 19, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014

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MY SON, SAINT FRANCIS

A STORY IN POETRY

An emotional, captivating Christian story in verse.

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Heidish (A Misplaced Woman, 2016, etc.) presents an account of St. Francis of Assisi’s life, as told from his father’s perspective in poetic form.

St. Francis is known as a saint who believed in living the Gospel, gave sermons to birds, and tamed a wolf. Over the course of 84 poems, Heidish tells her own fictionalized version of the saint’s journey. In his youth, Francesco is an apprentice of his father, Pietro Bernardone, a fabric importer. The boy is a sensitive dreamer and nature lover who sees “natural holiness in every living thing.” As an adult, Francesco decides to pursue knighthood, but God warns him to “Go back, child / Serve the master.” He joins the Church of San Damiano, steals his father’s storeroom stock, and sells it to rebuild the church. His furious father chains him in the cellar, and the bishop orders Francesco to repay the debt. Afterward, father and son stop speaking to each other; Francesco becomes a healer of the sick and a proficient preacher. After failing to broker a peace agreement during wartime, Francesco falls into depression and resigns his church position. He retreats to the mountains and eventually dies; it’s only then that Pietro becomes a true follower of St. Francis: “You are the father now and I the son / learning still what it means to be a saint,” he says. Heidish’s decision to tell this story from Pietro’s perspective is what makes this oft-told legend seem fresh again. She uses superb similes and metaphors; for example, at different points, she writes that St. Francis had eyes like “lit wicks” and a spirit that “shone like a clean copper pot.” In another instance, she describes the Church of San Damiano as a place in which “walls crumbled / like stale dry bread.” Following the poems, the author also offers a thorough and engaging historical summary of the real life of St. Francis, which only adds further context and depth to the tale.

An emotional, captivating Christian story in verse.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-9905262-1-6

Page Count: 146

Publisher: Dolan & Associates

Review Posted Online: April 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018

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BEST EVIDENCE

POEMS

A poignant collection by a talented poet still in search of one defining voice.

A debut volume of poetry explores love and war.

Divided into four sections, Osaki’s book covers vast emotional territories. Section 1, entitled “Walking Back the Cat,” is a reflection on youthful relationships both familial and romantic. “Dying Arts,” the second part, is an examination of war and its brutal consequences. But sections three and four, named “Tradecraft” and “Best Evidence” respectively, do not appear to group poems by theme. The collection opens with “My Father Holding Squash,” one of Osaki’s strongest poems. It introduces the poet’s preoccupation with ephemera—particularly old photographs and letters. Here he describes a photo that is “several years old” of his father in his garden. Osaki muses that an invisible caption reads: “Look at this, you poetry-writing / jackass. Not everything I raise is useless!” The squash is described as “bearable fruit,” wryly hinting that the poet son is considered somewhat less bearable in his father’s eyes. Again, in the poem “Photograph,” Osaki is at his best, sensuously describing a shot of a young woman and the fleeting nature of that moment spent with her: “I know only that I was with her / in a room years ago, and that the sun filtering / into that room faded instantly upon striking the floor.” Wistful nostalgia gives way to violence in “Dying Arts.” Poems such as “Preserve” present a battleground dystopia: “Upturned graves and craters / to swim in when it rains. / Small children shake skulls / like rattles, while older ones carve rifles / out of bone.” Meanwhile, “Silver Star” considers the act of escorting the coffin of a dead soldier home, and “Gun Song” ruminates on owning a weapon to protect against home invasion. The language is more jagged here but powerfully unsettling nonetheless. The collection boasts a range of promising poetic voices, but they do not speak to one another, a common pitfall found in debuts. “Walking Back the Cat” is outstanding in its refined attention to detail; the sections following it read as though they have been produced by two or more other poets. Nevertheless, this is thoughtful, timely writing that demands further attention.

A poignant collection by a talented poet still in search of one defining voice.

Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-984198-32-7

Page Count: 66

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: June 26, 2018

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