A forthright, energizing collection.
Lang’s (The Cafe of Dreams, 2018 etc.) latest collection of poetry is a cri de coeur on the injustices of contemporary life.
The author, who holds the position of poet laureate of Vallejo, California, offers 70 new poems here—the majority of which were written, she says, as a “reflection of the times we live in” and her own “political evolution.” The collection opens with “What’s on Her Mind?” which declares boldly, “For every woman allowed to grace / the pages of man’s history books / there are millions more / achieving miracles that are overlooked.” It’s protest-march poetry that delivers a thumping message and sets the tone for the remainder of the book: “This is the era of every woman / must raise up her voice! // Every woman must have free choice!” This message is echoed in “A Blessing for the Women Who Pray With Their Feet,” an invocation written for the 2019 Vallejo Women’s March. It was written as a call-and-response prayer, and Lang’s bold, erudite language will empower and uplift readers: “Until all women are safe from violence, so that a woman can exist in any space without fear, we march!” Such pieces leap off the page and demand to be read aloud to release their crackling energy. Others deliver an equally powerful message in their sparsity; for example, “Fatigue” reads simply: “I’m so tired of / writing about / mass shootings.” A number of other poems address the horror of gun violence in America and New Zealand. “Never Known” delivers a valiant message of hope and determination for change: “the day our voices go silent / must be the day that this terror has ceased.” However, Lang’s poetry isn’t only about protest. Haikus, such as “Moonlight Song,” chime with the beauty and clarity of Tibetan tingsha: “A moonlight chorus / serenades until sunrise. / Wake up. Sing a dream.” Skeptics who deem protest-oriented verse to be ineffective or outmoded will struggle with most of Lang’s writing, but for others, it will be a persuasive call to action.
A forthright, energizing collection.Pub Date: July 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-07-209601-6
Page Count: 107
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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