Source: MindBuck Media
Paperback, 98 pgs.
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Magnesium by Ray Buckley is an independent poetry film that explores the dark moments of breakups and the struggles people have with lost attachments to people they relied on in their lives. “Stay with me. Assure me of things I know I can’t be assured of. Press your will against the arguments which mortality makes against us,” the narrator says in “Assure Me”. “Say to me the work I do will keep us persistent through the years we were not allotted.”
Artists often want their work to stand the test of time, but it’s more than just the art or the poetry or the words, it’s us, a part of us, that can live on and demonstrate that we were here. Our time is precious and to create a lasting impression is something many of us want for ourselves, even if it is to just be remembered fondly by friends and family. However, we can never truly be assured of our place in others’ lives, no matter how much they assure us of their love, devotion, and care.
Many things are left unsaid between people, even close family, and these unsaid moments become an obsession for those left behind when someone passes away. Like the narrator tells Ray in “Untitled” (pg. 21), “I’m sorry that there’s nothing I can say to you ever again. I’m sorry that we’ll never know each other.”
However, there are digressions and movements in time that are not linear, and readers will just have to go with the flow and ponder the events after taking the journey. Digressions into politics and the need of politicians not to have their own opinions and not care about things but only do what the people of their area tell them is particularly poignant in today’s times (“A Minor Digression”, pg. 54-5). However, it also speaks to the ridiculousness of this expectation. People have opinions and emotions and those are what guide them daily.
Magnesium by Ray Buckley burns the oxygen around it, and while some poems are brighter than others, they call attention to the emotional baggage we all carry.
RATING: Quatrain
About the Poet:
Ray Buckley is an American author, actor, and cinematographer from Portland, OR.