Gentle, soulful poems that shine a soft light on the human tendency toward wonder.
Stern’s (Dancing with the Moon and the Stars, 2016) debut poetry collection travels the natural landscape and the inner pathways of mood in quiet, reflective verse.
Comprised of several thematic sections, this set includes short poems that depend heavily on end rhymes for their sound and sense. But within this patterned structure, there’s room for revelation. The poet often proposes, for example, that insight springs from everyday moments; the danger lies in not recognizing them: “We often notice grandiose, showy, and noisy display, / And miss out on what the quiet and small have to say,” she writes in a lovely poem that features the “fireworks” of fireflies even as Fourth of July celebrations light up the larger sky. The poet highlights touches of beauty in the natural world, offering up pictures of quiet morning walks or the effects of moonlight on otherwise familiar fields: “wherever I walked, it was covered in cream.” Difficult as it is to arrive at fresh locutions for the four seasons, the “salt shaker top” of the red poppy catches the eye in a summer garden, as do the intimations of autumnal crows, gathered and noisy. Crows appear more than once in this book, as the poet seeks to understand the voice of nature, although she acknowledges that it’s beyond human translation. “Oh November, November, you have a lot to say” sums up the raucous bird voices without obliterating their mystery. Mostly, nature comforts and instructs in these poems, and even a crow’s behavior can teach us to be resourceful and watchful. Much is made of the similarity of the words “sun” and “son,” and many poems have an explicitly religious aspect of prayer: “Oh, Son of God, shine down on this earth,” the speaker pleads, eager for a lightening of earthly worries. As the poems draw on spiritual belief for sustenance, they articulate an optimistic perspective. No matter the dark spell or the rainstorm, light on the other side of it saves the speaker from uncertainty; she walks on, stronger for the test.
Gentle, soulful poems that shine a soft light on the human tendency toward wonder.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63524-557-8
Page Count: 155
Publisher: LitFire Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An emotional, captivating Christian story in verse.
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
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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