A nuanced, clear set of poems that seamlessly articulate homeward journeys—wherever one’s home may be.
This poetry collection, translated from Greek to English, examines such topics as parenthood, love, and loss through the lens of Homer’s Odyssey.
Giannisi (Architecture/Univ. of Thessaly; Rhapsodia, 2016, etc.) opens her poem “Lotus-eaters I” with a quote from the aforementioned epic: “And those who ate the honeyed meat of the lotus / no longer desired for return, or to bring back news / but wanted only to remain with the others, the lotus- / eaters, contented to pluck the fruit, to eat and forget.” When Odysseus’ ship suffered harsh winds, he and his men ended up on the land of the lotus-eaters; the more lotus flowers the men ate, the more their desire to return home vanished. In Giannisi’s poem, she uses the flowers as a metaphor for the intoxicating seas of today’s Greece: “I’ll stay here forever next to the sea.” Like the Odyssey, this collection explores the search for home, although the narrator’s voyage isn’t as concrete as Odysseus’. Each poem’s theme is signified by its title, many referencing characters or concepts from Homer’s work and each bridging the gap between modern life and the epic. In “Penelope III,” for instance, named after Odysseus’ wife and the mother of their child, the narrator discusses the profundity of parenthood: “she worships her children / when they were little she’d take their plates / and finish their food / even now she eats the leftovers.” This collection, translated by Sneeden (Last City, 2018), also includes colorful imagery, such as the pounding of octopus, a common Greek meat-tenderizing practice, and men singing in a tavern. Giannisi accessibly waxes on more complicated ideas, such as the nuances of linguistics in her poem “Patroklos II”: “is it that language follows longing / or is it longing / that’s inspired by language?” The collection also reflects on some darker topics, including death, gluttony, and growing old (“time is a terrifying medicine”), but its purpose may in fact be to show that these aren’t mysterious subjects at all—they’re just a part of the process of life.
A nuanced, clear set of poems that seamlessly articulate homeward journeys—wherever one’s home may be.Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9992613-0-9
Page Count: 148
Publisher: World Poetry Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 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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