MINE TO HOLD

A debut poetry collection about love, light, and faith.

The 65 poems that make up Noland’s debut collection largely center on the poet’s abiding commitment to his Christian faith. Noland makes this abundantly clear in his repeated use of light-and-dark imagery to signify aspects of his religion. In several poems, such as “Fools Gold,” light represents the sun, and, as Noland explains,“The sun is a symbol of the Son.” In another poem, “Patience and Faith,” light is “nourishment” that “punishes the strength of waste.” In “Diamonds, They Last Forever,” the speaker is “a piece of coal, / trying to hide behind my sins,” until “He” comes to keep his “heart pure / just like a white diamond.” Light and dark can serve as powerful symbols in poetry, but Noland’s repetitive use of this device loses its impact over time, causing some poems’ sentiments to fall flat. In other works, metaphors become mixed and murky in a way that causes the poem to feel overly abstract and confusing. In “Consuming Silence,” for example, Noland posits that silence is both a “melody” and a “meal” with its own “savory tone.” The collection is most intriguing when Noland homes in on the small, personal details of life and faith; in “Dancing in the Light,” the speaker reflects on childhood memories of watching specks of dust floating in sunshine, “as if they were dancing to an inaudible sound being emitted / from the light.” In “Fishing,” readers get a glimpse of a the speaker casting a fishing line while contemplating poetic lines, “luring phrases to hit their marks.” It’s in these brief, vivid moments that the poems’ humanity shines brightest.

A sometimes-engaging set of poems that’s hampered by repetitive imagery.