Searching poems that often make effective use of language, though some are overly polemical at times.
A collection of poetry that examines themes of exile, joy, loss, feminism, and political repression.
In the eight parts of this compilation, Azad (Thus Speaks Mother Simorq, 2018, etc.) often draws on her own experience as an emigrant from Iran to Canada to consider a range of concepts that touch on separation and connection. The first section, aptly named “Lightness,” sets a mood of joyful expectation in such pieces as the opening poem, “Overture to Spring,” in which the speaker makes ready for the end of winter by cleaning out a birdbath, singing as she scrubs out the slimy bowl in anticipation of goldfinches who will fluff and play there; indoors, she says, “butterfly spirits / waltz in through the walls.” Other poems in this book share this speaker’s sense of possibility and spiritual connection, such as “Taming My Animus,” which appreciates how the narrator’s “inner man” allows her imagination to blossom. But the poems generally take a darker turn, addressing emotional distance; exile and diaspora; the loss of a child; a friend’s suicide; and government oppression, particularly of women in Iran. Although these poems can be powerful, many of them are simply bald statements of political stances. For example, in “Mullahs Cannot Block Our Declamations,” the speaker bemoans how “Women wishing to be treated as people, / … / find themselves in the solitary confinement / of the Republic of Discrimination.” Such lines lack subtlety, but Azad does offer cleverer, more artful poems. “Cinema Paradiso,” for example, is entirely constructed of real-life movie titles: “Wings of desire / Heart like a wheel // A man and a woman / Made for each other.” The poem works on its own, apart from the conceit, while also displaying the evocative lure of a good title. Another ingenious piece is “House Wanted,” which imagines the needs of exiles, “A family of five…(million Iranians)” in terms of a classified ad; the fixer-upper they seek “Ideally is / Woman-friendly with / Access to cable democracy.” Others use rhyme, alliteration, and varying verse forms effectively. In “A Garden in Galicia,” for example, the haiku stanzas are more powerful for their compression, saying more with less. “Epiphany” tells an Innu girl’s story, achieving a spooky quality—like a night breeze in dark forest—through rhyme, assonance, and repeated sibilants: “She said she missed her missing / mother, who was nothing but stories / of gaps, ghosts, and dark places, / who shape-shifted into cypress / … / and other displaced faces.” “A Room Full of Joy,” an optimistic poem despite references to “illusions,” “scars,” “burst bubbles,” and “past tears,” concludes with a forthright statement of resiliency: “Don’t be surprised / to see how / my sorrows rise / for lack of / weight.” Here, Azad subtly uses rhyme (“surprised” / “rise”) to lift the stanza, isolating “weight” on a single line, as if to suggest its powerlessness.
Searching poems that often make effective use of language, though some are overly polemical at times.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5255-1366-4
Page Count: 156
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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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