Aprhrodite Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer, published in 2019, is a multidimensional tour de force of poetry, prose, artwork, and structure, that truly is mesmorizing in its scope and beauty.
The book is composed structurally of seven chapters, each one a dialogue between the poet and Aphrodite. Aphrodite Airs Her Grievances, The Poet Airs Her Grievances, Aprhrodite Speaks On Love, The Poet Speaks On Love, Aphrodite Sings Of War, The Poet Sings Of War, & Rising. Each of the chapters has short verse poems, prose poems, graphics, photographs, drawings, and collages, all revolving around these dialogues.
There is an imaginative twist here, a poetic turning of the tables, so to speak, particularly in the earlier chapters, when Aphrodite addresses some of the many myths surrounding her. Some of her remarks are angry, some are humorous, but they all revolve around the themes of self-empowerment, and self worth, which truly applies to all of us.
In this way, this original book, based on the struggles and difficulties of one young woman, coming of age, accepting who she is, become generalized, and reveal so much to all of us. In a way Trista Mateer becomes her very own version of Aphrodite, with pride and freedom, and without denying anything at all to anyone else.
Which in my opinion, is truly a worthwhile accomplishment!
If you like contemporary poetry/fiction, and the attendent styles, which have come about because of social media, I am sure you will enjoy this book!
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give yourself permission to explore every aspect of your being:
the parts they call feminine and the parts they don’t / the parts that would make your mother gasp / the parts that are deemed unacceptable and undesirable / the parts that are hungry / the parts that are angry / the parts that are hurting / the parts that make you feel good / the parts that make you feel guilty / the parts your’re not proud of / all of it / every bloody, ugly bit
New York City Haiku, published in 2017, is a nice collection of Haiku submitted to The New York Times by its readers. It includes illustrations by James Gulliver Hancock.
The book numbers 127 pages and there are either one or two haiku per page. I give a rough estimate therefore, of about 200 haiku total for the entire work.
New Yorkers are known for being a tough bunch! They have faced just about everything the world can throw at a city, with many cycles of good times and bad times. But through it all they have shown a true grit and a resilience that has withstood the test of time.
Inside this small volume, you will find poems that are wry, poems that are observant, poems that have humour, poems that embrace kindness. It holds a treasury of the heart, mind, and soul, of New York City.
With that said I am going to wrap up this brief review with some examples and you can make up your own mind!
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We are all of us, waiting, wanting, wondering, local or express
dawn lights up the sky models seeking cameras fashion still alive
I lost my headphones but found the subway had music of it own
Elderly couple On Circle Line for a date, Giving love a chance
Lonely in the night Alone on a crowed train Many hearts, one soul
Beware the puddle of indeterminate depth that swallows boots whole
Adrift in a sea. We’re all in this together. We won’t let you drown.
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I know, April, poetry month is already over. But for me every month is poetry month! So I intend to continue with my poetry reviews!
October by Louise Gluck (1943-2023), is a small chapbook of poetry, published in 2004, while the poet was still the poet laurete of the United States. It is only about 12 pages long, divided into six sections of about 2 pages each, and revolves around feelings, moods, and thoughts, provoked by the coming of the month of October. It has become a bit hard to find printed copies (I have an online link below), so I considered myself lucky when I found a copy in my local library in Cornwall, NY!
In 2020, Louise Gluck joined Pearl Buck, and Toni Morrison, as one of the few American women to win a Nobel Prize in literature. And unlike Pearl Buck and Toni Morrison, who were more noted as fiction writers, Louise Gluck won primarily as a poet, a unique distinction in American letters.
The Nobel Committee remarked Louise Gluck was awarded the prestigous prize “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”.
Indeed, though I certainly am no expert on this major poet, I would agree wholeheartedly. Her poems do embrace beauty, but in an austere, almost stern, uncomprising way.
Winter was over. In the thawed dirt, bits of green were showing
Come to me, said the world. I was standing in my wool coat at a kind of bright portal — I can finally say long ago, it give me considerable pleasure. Beauty
the healer, the teacher —
death cannot harm me more than you have harmed me, my beloved life.
There is a profound paradox here. Beauty has enriched her life, helped her to heal, helped to give her a beloved life, but her new consciousness can only arrive at the conclusion that death cannot harm her any more than her life has already harmed her. This is a triumph, for sure, an independence of spirit, a heroic courage given the difficulties she experienced, (particularly as a child) but yes, it also can be viewed as an austere view of life, beauty, and fate.
If you want to be conversant with all of modern poetry, than you must read some of Louise Gluck’s poems! She published quite a bit of poetry in her lifetime so you have a wide selection. The link below to her poem October, might help you in making your decision.
Playlist For The Apocalypse is the latest collection of poems published by Pulitzer Prize Winner, and one time Poet Laureate, Rita Dove. It was released in 2021, and published by W. W. Norton & Company.
The book is divided into six sections and covers the gamut from personal health issues, history, local and world politics, and personal reminiscences. The styles are free verse with some different formats and the lengths are short to a few pages. Critics have overwhelmingly called this release one of Rita Dove’s best,
Time’s Arrow:
As the title of this section suggests, these 14 poems are about the past, reminiscing if you will.
After Egypt:
These 16 poems draw parallels between the struggles of Jews throughout history, and the struggles of African-Americans in the United States.
Spring Cricket:
These 7 poems revolve around music, particularly in the African-American community, and how that music has effected the larger world.
A Standing Witness:
This is the heart and soul of the collection in my opinion. We are taken on a poetic trip through contemporary history, from the late 1960s to the early 2020s. After a Prologue, there are 13 poems and each of the 13 poems covers in a page, a topic, an era, an event, a slice of the panorama of the last 60 years. These poems do take points of view you may or may not agree with, but they are never vulgar, though some may be considered sharp edged. The poem I chose to include with this post is the Prologue, which you can find below.
Eight Angry Odes:
As the title suggests, these are 8 poems about issues that just seem to aggravate the poet. I find these poems to be biting, humorous, and tongue-in-cheek, sometimes in the same poem.
Little Book Of Woe:
These 14 poems deal with some of the difficult issues of life we all deal with, including some of the health issues suffered by Rita Dove. I was truly moved by all of them.
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All in all I found this volume to be an enjoyable experience. I am sure that many folks will not agree with all of Rita Dove’s viewpoints, but they are never vulgar or tasteless. They are just the way she sees the world. Importantly, she never comprises her immense poetic skill to make a point. For that reason I would say, if you enjoy reading poetry you will not be disappointed. If you enjoy both reading and writing poetry you will be doubly rewarded. You not only will get a chance to enjoy moving poems, but you may learn something about the craft of poetry. I know I did.
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Beside The Golden Door Prologue
Surely there must be something beautiful to smile upon — the umbered blue edge of sky as it fades into evening, the brusque green heave of the sea. When I look up, surely there will be a cloud or a lone star
dangling. Truth is, the Truth has gone walking — left her perch for the doves and ravens to ravage, hightailed it to the hills, to the quiet beyond rivers and trees. No matter
what ragged carnival may be thronging the streets, what bleak homestead or plantation of sorrows howling its dominion, Truth would say these are
arrogant times. Believers slaughter their doubters while the greedy oil their lips with excuses and the righteous turn merciless; the merciful, mad.
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This review is posted as part of the celebration of National Poetry Month, April 2024!
No Land In Sight, is a book of poetry published by celebrated author Charles Simic, in 2022. It was has last published work, he passed away within the year in January 2023, at the age of 84.
Charles Simic was born in Belgrade, in 1938, right before World War II. He lived through both the Nazi attacks and the years of Communism. He finally escaped and came to the United States with his mother and brother in the 1950s. His father left and escaped and came to America years earlier.
As a result, Simic did not really learn English until his teenage years, which makes his success as an American poet, all the more astonishing. Of course, when he speaks, you can hear some accent, but not much. Eventually, he went on to win a Pulitzer Prize (1990), and become the Poet Laureate of the United States (2007-2008)!
I have long been a fan of Charles Simic. His style and perspective truly are unique among modern poets. With that said though, I must admit, this last work was a bit of a surprise, at least on my very first read. What do I mean by that? Well when the poet was writing this work he knew he was facing his last days and that fact definitely effected his content and style.
Charles Simic was always a realist with a twist. Sometimes a sly twist, sometimes a humorous one, sometimes a surreal one. But always a twist. His view of the world was always as it was, as he saw it, without any romantic coverings. There are no traces of Walt Whitman, perhaps the greatest of American poets, in his works. But that twist somehow had a sparkle, a sense of humanity, a sense of decency.
AT TENDER MERCY O lone streetlight, Trying to shed What light you can On a spider repairing his web This autumn night, Stay with me, As I push further and further Into the dark.
This poem. At Tender Mercy, is from Scribbled In The Dark, published in 2017, the very last poem in the collection. A spider, a street lamp, and the poet, quite a typical Charles Simic combination. A bit surreal perhaps, a bit mundane. The poet admits he is travelling deeper into the dark, and so he asks the street lamp that may be helping the spider to continue and help him. Hardly a bucolic scene, or a romantic one. Darkness and light, with a twist. A Charles Simic poem for sure!
THE WIND HAS DIED My little boat Take care
There is no Land in sight
This poem, The Wind Has Died, is the last poem, in Charles Simic’s last published book of poetry, No Land In Sight. I think the difference between the two last poems is significant and also reflects the different tones of the different volumes. And of course, the very last line, of the very last poem, of the very last book, echoes the book’s title. The journeys in both poems are similar, going further into the dark, at sea with no wind. But this last poem is a bit more pessimistic. It is not hopeless. Simic always stops before reaching that point. Take care, he says. There still is caring in the Universe. Maybe that will help. But there is no bright lamp to light up the path.
In terms of size, the poems in this last book are similar to other works of Charles Simic I have encountered. They typically are short rarely running longer than one page. And in No Land In Sight, many are even shorter than other works, similar to the poem presented here. They are more distillate, as if Simic just wanted to present the bare bones of what he had to say without any clever phrases, humor, detours, complexities or overwrought metaphors.
With that said, there also are poems of intense beauty, an intense joy in the moment, that can celebrate the beauty and mystery of life. For in Simic’s world that too is part of our existence and cannot be forgotten. I have included one of those poems from this book at the end of this post.
And on second and third readings, some of these sparse poems can often reveal bits and pieces of sparkling light, small words and places where light or humor or hope or resilience can reside. There may be no land in sight at the moment but we can still take care and appreciate what we do see and try to share and manifest those experiences.
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For fans of Charles Simic, for those who admire his poems, this work, No Land In Sight, is a must read. For those who are new to this poet, I would recommend any of his earlier works first, and then making your decision from there.
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SUMMER DUSK
You’ve been the love of my life, Light lingering in the sky At the close of a long day Over the roofs of some city Like New York or Rome. As streets empty in the heat, And shadows lengthen And darken every room, Occupied or still vacant, Where some turn on a lamp And others step to a window To savor this fleeting moment When everything stops As if stunned by its own beauty.
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This review is posted as part of the celebration of National Poetry Month, April 2024!
The Grief We’re Given Poems, by William Bortz is a book of poetry published in 2021 in the midst of the Covid pandemic. The author is a poet and editor from Iowa, and has written several well regarded books of poetry, and published many poems in any number of periodicals.
As the title suggests, this collection focuses on grief, loss, nostalgia, unexpected change, the great uncertainties of life, which can often leave us exasperated and depressed. The poet is honest about these experiences, he does not try to sugar coat them by any means. But he also looks deeper, at our resilience, our spirits, our potential for growth.
The styles employed by the poet are multi-faceted. Some are very short, some are more akin to prose, some are close to concrete poetry. Different types of accents, and punctuations are also used. As a whole, compared to some other recent poets I have encountered, I would say the forms almost border on being experimental. At first I found this a bit disconcerting, but as I read through the book, I found it appropriate and meaningful.
The book is published by Central Avenue Publishing and is currently being offered as a hardcover, for the attractive price of $16.99, rather than the usual $25.00 or more for recently published hardcover books of poetry. All in all I would recommend this for all poetry lovers who like to keep up to date with contemporary styles and poets.
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T0DAY, THE SUNRISE LOOKS LIKE IT CAN HOLD ME
one day I decided to take a step and it hurt less than standing still
by William Bortz
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This review is posted as part of the celebration of National Poetry Month, April 2024!
The Wisdom Of Flowers, written by Liz Marvin, and illustrated by Rosie Dore, is a beautiful little book, covering sixty flowers, both exotic and well known, with each flower nicely illustrated and with an accompanying writeup on the adjacent page.
From the Dandelion and the Buttercup, to the Lipstick Tree, each entry will reveal that flower’s unique symbolism, characteristics and strengths that taken together, give that flower its character and place in nature, and can teach us something about the world and ourselves. The illustrations and entries are both beautiful and inspiring!
The book normally retails for $16.95, but I was able to pick it up at my local Barnes & Noble store for a very attractive $8.00. If you love the flowers of Spring and Summer, you definitely will enjoy this small treasure.
Film For Her is the second book published by poet, Internet sensation, photographer, fashionista/model and commentator, Orion Carloto, published in 2020, when she was 24 years old. Her first work, Flux, a collection of poetry and prose, was published in 2017 and was well received both critically and commercially. Flux revolved around the emotional turmoil surrounding her broken past relationships and all that involves.
Film For Her is also autobiographical in tone and presentation. It is made up of an interesting collage of poetry, prose, letters, postcards, and photographs (the author’s own). It basically starts with childhood and ends up with the present moments in the author’s life. During this span it covers many interesting aspects of her life, the bitter and the sweet, including growing up, friendships, extensive travels here and abroad, love affairs, and just general reflections on what it feels like to be a young woman in this day and age. No real attempt is made to define fact or fiction, and in a way, the magic of this work is that it really doesn’t matter! I am sure we all have experienced times in our lives when life itself seemed just like a poem, or a song, or even perhaps a movie, and we just let ourselves go in those beautiful moments, even the bittersweet ones. And when we wake up, and touch ground again, we long to return to that special place.
That is the story behind Film For Her, and Orion Carloto’s journey.
If you are into that type of story, and that type of journey, you will like this book. The story is told by a talented, multidimensional young artist, who writes with verve, sentiment, and honesty.
************************************************* 7 YEARS OF BAD LUCK LOVE
We were mirrored lovers staring at one another through the reflection of broken glass.
Beautifully Mundane, is a short book of poems, a chapbook if you will, written by Alison E. Berman, a technology journalist, and climate communications professional. It is her first book of published poetry, and it was inspired by a year she spent abroad, in South America.
The book is comprised of an Introduction, and three chapters: COLOMBIA (4 poems), BRAZIL (4 poems), and ARGENTINA (7 poems). There are also a few black and white photographs in the back of the book, which were a bit hard to make out.
The poetry, however, is another story. These poems reflect a desire to be closer to nature, and the natural rhythms of life, and are very much in the vein of Walt Whitman and Haiku poetry. They typically run about a page or so, filled with images and tinged with romance. Each country elicits a different tempo, a different vibe, and ends with a different type of epilogue.
For readers on blogs, WordPress or others, the wording style will be familiar. It is metaphorical of course, but it also is down to earth, and conversational as many poems on the Internet are. There is an intimacy with readers that you might not find with more classical authors.
All in all, this was a very enjoyable book of poems! Given that the poems were personal, close to nature, and relatively short, they were right up my ally. I enjoyed them thoroughly. I think you will too!
Goldenrod is the new book of poetry by award winning author Maggie Smith. It is a relatively short volume, divided into three untitled sections. The poems range in size from about one half of a page to two pages.
Ok so here are some quick thoughts and impressions noted right after I finished the last poem:
Conversational poems, family poems, philosophical poems, everyday poems, poems about art, about nature, about family life.
Most are articulate, informed, and informal almost off-handed, intellectual at turns, personal at others. Marriage, children, divorce, time, space, life in general.
Entertaining, informing, reflections, sometimes questions, a touch of politics, though thankfully not much.
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Maggie Smith is from the generation following the generation of the two icons of poetry written by women, Mary Oliver and Louise Gluck (Nobel Prize Literature 2020, born in New York City). Mary Oliver (belovingly known as Mary O) passed away recently and Louise Gluck has just released a new book of poems which I hope to review! I think of Maggie Smith as someone from the in-between generation because as you may have noticed there is a whole younger generation of female poets in their twenties and thirties with new voices and perspectives.
This makes Maggie Smith particularly interesting regarding the future of the United States and our culture. Think of Mary O and Louise Gluck as Donald Trump and Joe Biden (no insults intended!). And think of Maggie Smith as the next generation of political leadership.
The torch is going to be passed in the next few years and it is not going to the younger poets/generations. It will be going to Maggie Smith’s generation. And personally I have always felt that artists and poets have more truth to tell then all the politicians and business tycoons put together.
So, there are a few good reasons to pick up this volume and give it a shot. First off, the poems are great reads, contemporary, colloquial, well written. Second, you don’t have to spend weeks reading, you can probably finish in a few nights and then go back and dig deeper into the poems that really intrigue you. And lastly, perhaps most significantly, you will get a true poet’s view of the new generation, standing on the cusp of leadership.
Happy Reading!
Below I have included the poem “Goldenrods”, the keynote poem of this volume in many ways.
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Goldenrods
I’m no botanist. If you’re the color of sulfur and growing at the roadside, you’re goldenrod.
You don’t care what I call you, whatever you were born as. You don’t know your own name.
But driving near Peoria, the sky pink-orange, the sun bobbing at the horizon, I see everything
is what it is, exactly, in spite of the words I use: black cows, barns falling in on themselves, you.
Dear flowers born with a highway view, forgive me if I’ve mistaken you. Goldenrod,
whatever your name is, you are with you own kind. Look–the meadow is a mirror, full of you,
your reflection repeating. Whatever you are. I see you, wild yellow, and I would let you name me.
How To Love is a short treatise by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who has published many books and writings through the years, and has been very influential particularly in the fields of Philosophy and Religion.
The book is comprised of 83 brief meditations, followed by two more practical sections on how to move forward. The meditations would make great WordPress blog posts, particularly if followed by a brief commentary section!
The underpinning of course for these meditations is Zen Buddhism, but I can truthfully say that you don’t have to practice Zen Buddhism to receive a great deal of benefit from this book.
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LOVE IS ORGANIC
Love is a living, breathing thing. There is no need to force it to grow in a particular direction. If we start by being easy and gently with ourselves, we will find it is just there inside us, solid and healing.
*** One of the meditations from How To Love, quoted here as part of the WP review.
I am always the inveterate book lover and this past Saturday, 8/14, amidst all the depressing news regarding the pandemic, Haiti, and Afghanistan, among other things, I did pick up a great book haul of some amazing books!
Hello Web Design from the No Starch Press where they had a great sale and where they sell the book (hardcover) and the ebook, for the same great price! This is a book about Web Design for folks who are trying to pick up some tips without having a strong background in graphic design. I did work as a programmer/analyst for many years and have put up a web site, that needs some redesign, so I am looking forward to the advice given here. I last updated my site in 2016, you can check it out here: http://pgtestsoft.com/
I Would Leave Me If I Could A Collection Of Poetry by Halsey. Halsey is not only a poet, but also a singer/performer. I first heard of her on a collaboration with the Chainsmokers, Closer. Can’t wait to check out her poetry. (Baby hold me closer in the back seat of your Rover)
She Came To Slay The Life And Times Of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar. I have heard of Harriet Tubman just about my whole life but don’t really know all that much about her. This book find was at Barnes & Noble, one of my favorite brick and mortar stores, it is written by a noted author, it is illustrated and about 150 pages, a perfect length. I just don’t read long novels or biographies. So I am really looking forward to this!
The Smile At The Foot Of The Ladder by Henry Miller. Way back when, when Henry Miller was more in the spotlight, I tried one of his longer novels. Basically, it was Drugs, Sex, And Rock And Roll. I didn’t get very far, maybe about 30 or so pages. If I wanted Drugs, Sex, And Rock And Roll vicariously, I would just put on a Stones album or albums from other Rock & Roll groups. So I never read anything by Henry Miller. Then I discovered this novella, about 50 pages, illustrated by the author and published by a great publisher, New Directions. The novella is about a clown, so I thought it was worth a try. I will let you all know!
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Well that’s it for this week’s haul! Remember to patronize your local bookstore if you are fortunate enough to have one.
Artist extraordinaire, daughter, sister, wife, lover, courageous and outrageous, revolutionary and patriot, always, lover of humanity, lover of nature, lover of life.
There will be no other.
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A beautiful little book on Frida Kahlo, put together by contemporary artist Kathy Cano-Murillo. You will find yourself reading through it quickly and finish within a few nights. It looks at Frida’s life from many different angles, using small pieces of Art, Biography, Letters, Words, Fashion, Beliefs, to show the complexity, bravery and creativity of Frida Kahlo. If you at all feel attracted to the life and art of Frida Kahlo, you will enjoy this book immensely!
Notes On Grief by award winning author Chimamanda Adichie, is a moving essay on the death of her beloved father on June 10, 2020, during the pandemic. It is comprised of thirty short sections ranging in length from a paragraph to a few pages.
The author’s family is a multinational family with deep roots in Nigeria and branches in America and the U.K. At the beginning of the pandemic, her father and mother lived in the family ancestral home of Abba, Nigeria, two siblings lived in the capital city of Lagos, Nigeria, a brother lived in the U.K., and two other siblings lived in America. Mrs. Adichie also lived in America with her husband and daughter.
Once the lockdown began, going back to Nigeria, to be with her ailing father, became impossible. Zoom calls had to suffice. You can imagine the pain and horror of watching her ailing Dad become increasingly ill, without being able to visit, console, and support, something many other folks faced, and another grim side to the pandemic.
The thirty sections in the book each evoke a moving vignette of the author’s world, particularly in relation to her father. Chimamanda Adichie and her father were very close and each sketch, in its own way, makes this clear.
We also get some insights on Nigeria and Nigerian culture, family life, and the entire experience of grieving during the pandemic.
Altogether, Notes On Grief, is truly a beautiful book and well worth reading. And though the death of a parent is always heart-wrenching, in my experience, the opportunity also exists for the remaining members of the family to grow closer together, celebrating the life of their parent, and rediscovering and renewing their own family ties.