A strong poet is perceptive, eloquent, and thoughtful—and Osmani is three for three.
By turns religious, romantic, and political, this collection shows readers a skilled poet coming into his own.
Osmani (In the Footsteps of Rumi…, 2013, etc.) has published three previous volumes of verse, but in this one, he shows further maturation as a writer, and it’s a delight to watch. Among his talents is an ability to strike a delicate balance between humor and tragedy; few poets can do so without making the laughs feel impertinent and the grief feel insubstantial, but Osmani does. In “Smart Bombs,” for example, he offers a darkly comic description of “precision-guided munitions” that “ring door-bells wherever they go. / Standing by politely, respectfully, / as women and children stream out.” The fact that the exact opposite is true only makes the “joke” hit harder. “Guantanamo Blues” is a touching, tactful tribute to prisoners of the war on terror who’ve gone so long without freedom and without trial. It also shows readers the poet’s political side, which he only shows occasionally but to great effect. “Countries Are Corporations, My Friend,” for example, tweaks former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney while lamenting the nationalism that divides people. “Drone Open Season” effectively captures the moral tensions that this newest form of warfare provokes: “Can’t catch them alive; / a dilemma if they survive.” The bulk of this slim volume, though, touches on spiritual and ethical topics. In one of the best poems, the clever “0 for 3,” Osmani writes humbly and succinctly of the American culture’s skewed value system: “In a culture that values / wealth, looks and youth, / I am 0 for 3. /… / In a society that fosters / greed, cunningness, and arrogance, / I am 0 for 3.” Perhaps the only small snag in this otherwise accomplished work is the author’s use of the word “Sufiesque” to describe it. Sufism is a popular, mystical form of Islam that has produced some of the most influential, most read poets in the world, among them Rumi and Attar. In his introduction, Osmani defines Sufism in terms of “its tradition of viewing human existence in a much wider context than what can be encompassed by ritualistic dogma.” He casts an awfully wide net with this description, and it’s difficult to see what is Sufi—much less “Sufiesque”—about much of this collection. However, the way a poet labels his own work doesn’t matter much if that poetry is good, and Osmani’s is.
A strong poet is perceptive, eloquent, and thoughtful—and Osmani is three for three.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1502887382
Page Count: 102
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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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