As Joseph Brodsky put it, “to the poet phonetics and semantics are, with few exceptions, identical.” And one can see this in Moore’s poems that are so marvelously, deliciously musical, locating their meanings like an orchestration rather than a thesis, a wonderous symphonic search to understand the dimensions of a dual self.
Category: Poetry Reviews
A review of My City is a Murder of Crows by Nikita Parik
Language is given the incisive treatment as Parik describes consonants and vowels in the speaker’s mouth, finally describing how the consonants are bound together like bread in a sandwich. However, the deeper principle is that although dark moments are inbound to our existence, we will overcome difficulties such as Covid collectively. This volume records the poet’s experience of Covid through poetry.
A review of The Haunting by Cate Peebles
When working on a collection that relies so heavily on intertextuality, less is often more. The Haunting draws upon over twenty different pieces of media, ranging from nineteenth century novels to contemporary horror films. While many of these allusions feel at home, the sheer volume an at times feel overwhelming. Peebles’ ambition to capture the full spectrum of what it means to be haunted is admirable, but sometimes, attempting to encompass every possible reference dilutes the potency of the haunting itself.
Poetry for the Looming Past: A review of House of Jars by Hester L. Furey
I must admit that when I encountered this text for the first time, I was flung far out of my realm. House of Jars is brilliant in so many ways, and though I have long been an intimate friend of poetry, I was at first daunted by the intellectual challenges that this work presented. The opportunity to explore this work served doubly as another step forward along my academic journey, and once I learned to speak its language, I found House of Jars to be a delightfully rewarding challenge, to which I hope I rose valiantly.
A review of Fragmentation and Volta by Paul Ilechko
The collection may end with the word “home” but that word is followed by an ellipsis, that punctuation mark which means that something has been left out. Here at the end, it alludes not only to the contents being fragmentary but to the whole collection itself being a fragment. The book itself is a border, a liminal space inviting everything unsaid to gather around it.
A review of Twelve Days From Transfer by Eleanor Kedney
This collection is wonderfully vast with its symbolism and imagery that will surely challenge readers to think about infertility differently. Kedney’s intention of her work being a vessel for other woman to understand infertility’s emotional and psychological impact is enlightening, especially as I am a young woman in her twenties—infertility hasn’t crossed my mind yet
A review of Unruly Tree by Leslie Ullman
And only a poet blessed with imagination and a solid understanding of poetics could embark on a project such as Leslie Ullman has devised here. Using “Oblique Strategies” as a basis for a disciplined exploration of the boundless possibilities of creative interpretation, she has produced a series of informed, entertaining and highly individual poems.
Maya in the Zen Forest: A review of The Forest I Know By Kala Ramesh
The “forest” of the forest i know is essentially a metaphorical Zen forest where the poet learns life’s trust as well as its tedium. She humorously notes the many gurus along herpath and their lack of utility in her enlightenment. In Zen, a master is not necessary to experience satori, which is a sudden realization into the human experience. In this practice, the master pulls punches and jokes to encourage enlightenment.
A review of Down River with Li Po by Karen Pierce Gonzalez
Engaging the emotions that emanate through Li Po’s work, and with delicate strokes, Gonzalez packs maximum impact into snapshots of the natural world. ‘Pink yarrow garden’ and ‘patchwork planets’. Traversing the rural and the urban, the seen and the suggested. Lotus flowers, urban streets and vast mountains.
A review of Temporary Beast by Joanna Solfrian
The eclectic mix of suburban memories and contemporary city scenes, meditations on motherhood, poignant encounters interspersed with a shorter clip of found poetry; ars poetica adds levity before Temporary Beast resurfaces in longer form poems delving primarily into the specificity of memories. Her sister crashes the Camry outside the family home, the names of neighbors and the local pharmacist meander Solfrian’s poems and emotions surrounding her mother’s death.