Thoughtful, bold, humorous, earthy, and humane—a superb collection.
These collected poems imaginatively take the viewpoint of J, one of four writers of the Bible’s book of Genesis.
Chmielarz (Little Eternities: Poems, 2017, etc.), an accomplished poet, initially published several of these poems in literary magazines, including Commonweal and The Hudson Review. This collection focuses on connections between contemporary experiences and those recorded in ancient biblical texts. According to the epigraph from the 1990 work The Book of J by David Rosenberg and Harold Bloom, a hypothetical biblical writer called J was so named “for her intense interest in Yahweh’s character,” who was also called “Jahweh.” These poems are intensely interested in the stories that J allegedly collected and wrote down. They’re connected by 13 “intersections”—poems in italics that comment on or relate to the others. In “Intersection #1,” for example, the speaker considers mangoes, specifically their color and sweetness: “We danced to mango / close like lovers. Mango’s / sweetness melted us into life.” But experience can be bitter as well as sweet, as shown in the poem that follows, “Yahweh the Stork re the Family.” The narrating stork says, “I’ve seen it all—the father who killed his son, / the sons who threw their brother down a well”; nevertheless, “The next day I deliver another baby, a bundle / of trust”—trust being the first, and first forgotten, “contract with the world.” Other poems are based on specific biblical episodes, such as Lot’s transformation into a pillar of salt, Noah’s Ark, Joseph’s betrayal, and prophetic dreams, while others touch on primal experiences, such as giving birth or experiencing a death in the family. Several poems breathe freshness into old tales by centering on a woman’s point of view. In “The Boatman’s Wife,” for example, Noah’s long-suffering spouse wishes that she could fly away from “this whole mess”; her husband finds prophecy in raindrops and lets his beard get scraggly while she’s “corralling / the stupid hens.” Yet her practical nature finds release, with the poem ending in possibility: “At least she could save the birds. // At least, this one dove—.” The dove becomes a potent symbol not just of hope, but of freedom—saved by the wife’s longing to escape the ark and fly up into the wild sky. Several poems speak of loss, which was the focus of Chmielarz’s 2015 collection, The Widow’s House. The six lines of “Where One Becomes Two” are haikulike in their concise linkage of image to consciousness: “The old fox has died. / Now his mate is alone. / Now she must cross the river alone. // Look. / In the water. / Two foxes.” “Look” in the fourth line echoes the book’s epigraph, which begins “Look. A woman is writing on parchment,” which, in turn, calls to mind the more familiar translation, “Behold.” These connections, and the poem’s spare, stripped-down quality, demand that readers pay attention to the numinous link between spirit and body, so beautifully captured in the piece’s final line.
Thoughtful, bold, humorous, earthy, and humane—a superb collection.Pub Date: July 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-944467-17-3
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Brighthorse Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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