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Dispatches from Frontier Schools by Sarah Beddow

April 6, 2023 by

Source: Publisher
Paperback, 124 pgs.
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Dispatches From Frontier Schools by Sarah Beddow is an in-depth account of teacher in a poorly funded charter school and the pull of an educator to fulfill their passion in educating children and the tension it comes with when there is little funding, students are hard to reach, and family takes a back seat to her students. In the opening poem, “Dispatch for: [redacted]” the poet says, “I do not want    do not want cannot/stand this world/for them  So I touched/ her and listened.    She did/not dissolve    today but/surely she will/and/if I can   I will be/the nurse who notices   the silent shivering  the silent tears   and brings/an extra blanket//” (pg. 16)

Throughout this collection, readers will experience what it is like inside the classroom, dealing with managers, and caring deeply for students. She wants to reward her most engaged students, but the world seems to conspire against even the simplest rewards – a donut party. There’s a deep sadness in some of these poems. It’s clear the narrator of these poems is dedicated to her students, but teaching itself is hard enough without having to handle the pressures of the administration and compliance with rules. in “Dispatch re: Complaince” “I have / nothing else / to give   no ideas better than these / no students more woke / no donuts / no tears left to cry in the parking lot dawn / no me” (pg. 19)

Beddow tackles guns in school, education compliance, testing, inter-personal relationships between students, teen pregnancy, and how teachers must be involved but not be too involved in students’ lives. From “Dispatch re: Our Scholars” (pg. 55), “To take children of color and   performatively / age them into such series / stuffy  academics Lock them away in / an ivory tower  until they / emerge civil and / obedient  fit to meet the nation’s needs”

Dispatches From Frontier Schools by Sarah Beddow is a deeply moving collection of horror and beauty in educating students in a tumultuous time where students and teachers are under enormous pressures. Beddow is a masterful storyteller; she will have readers crying and thinking deeply about our education system.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Poet:

Sarah Beddow is a poet, wife and mother. She is the author of the book Dispatches from Frontier Schools (Riot in Your Throat) and the chapbook What’s pink & shiny/what’s dark and hard (Porkbelly Press). Her poems and essays have appeared in Bone Bouquet, Menacing Hedge, Entropy, GlitterMOB, and elsewhere. She has degrees in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and Sarah Lawrence College. After completing her MFA in poetry, she earned an MS in Urban Education from Mercy College and spent nearly a decade teaching high school English. Though she now works in educational publishing, she looks forward to one day returning to the classroom.

Filed Under: ARC, challenges, Events, national poetry month, New Authors Challenge, poetry, Poetry Reading Challenge, Read in 2022, reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

String by Matthew Thorburn

April 5, 2023 by

Source: Publisher
Paperback, 84 pgs.
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String by Matthew Thorburn is a poetry collection that tells a story of a boy living through war and explores the thread of loss and memory with precision. Every moment with this boy is unexpected, and his pain becomes our pain. Through these poems, Thorburn gives us an intimate picture of this teenager’s life from the doctor with the cigarettes on his desk to Rosie, who catches his eye.

While there is memory that delights and makes this boy smile, there are other, darker memories that he cannot forget.

They (pg. 11)

liked to throw things
a man down a well a woman
through a window they

liked to know things
names and dates your hopes
what hurt my hiding place

the combination to Saltzman's
empty safe they liked to 
break things doors bicycles

legs and backs and necks
they liked to take things
money gold rings fingernails

and fathers they had
no need for her none for me
except they were hungry so

hungry and so angry
like shadows they liked to hide
behind my back they liked

to ride behind my eyelids
death was their dark horse
they never stood still.

Thorburn’s images bring the reader into each scene. It is harrowing; it is deeply depressing. But there also is light in the survival. What can survive a Holocaust? What can survive a war? What can survive genocide? Our memories, our connections, our stories. We merely have to share them.

Damaged Animal (pg. 12)

The poor white upright
piano scored with
bullet holes they shot it too

then tipped it off
the balcony mangling Rosie's

silver bicycle forever
after a damaged animal
the white keys broken

teeth in the gutter
where their piss trickled

the black keys like
fingers broken in 
black gloves

String by Matthew Thorburn is achingly beautiful and unforgettable. The story will have you turning the pages as if it were a novel. The imagery is searing and heartbreaking. If you are on the lookout for a narrative poetry collection with a cohesive story, this is one for you. Thorburn is at his best here.

RATING: Cinquain

Other Reviews:

About the Poet:

Matthew Thorburn’s new book of poems is String, published by Louisiana State University Press in March 2023. He’s also the author of seven previous collections, including The Grace of Distance, a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize; the book-length poem Dear Almost, honored with the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry; and A Green River in Spring, winner of the Coal Hill Review chapbook competition. ​His work has been recognized with a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, the Mississippi Review Prize, and fellowships from the Bronx and New Jersey arts councils and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. A native of Michigan and for many years a New Yorker, he lives with his family in small-town New Jersey.

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Our Wolves by Luanne Castle

April 4, 2023 by

Source: Purchased
Paperback, 37 pgs.
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Our Wolves by Luanne Castle is a chapbook that hinges on the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, in which Castle explores themes of identity, feminism, and gender. Red is no longer merely a victim in these tales, she’s feisty and strong-willed, and in some ways she’s manipulative. Granny even plays a more integral role and explores what it means to be the excuse in a story. Castle also brings to the fore the role of the hunter and/or wood cutter found in folklore.

From “A Snowy Night in Manistee River Valley” (pg. 10), “I need to get outside,/let the chill wind wake me to myself./If it gets me, I’ll be clearheaded enough/to see what has substance, sharp enough/” There are often wolves that lurk in the dark of our minds, and here we see that isolation can breed some of that darkness and fear.

From "School for Girls Who Shouldn't Trust" (pg. 13)

...
Just kneel them down to check their hems,
keep their thighs covered, their minds intent.
Let them learn karate and debate to live with
men and beasts without damage or regret.
Nobody warns them about the animal calls
or signs that susurrate through the drainpipes.
....

There is so much to love in this collection and Castle’s imagination. Her poems provide us an alternate story, but they are by no means a retelling of Red’s tale. It is more a psychological exploration of characters in a tale where a young girl becomes/is a victim. How tired are we of this trope as women? We need to be saved? We are only victims and incomplete without the man in our lives to save us. How many times have we been in charge of our own destinies for better or worse? Castle explores all of these questions and scenarios while illuminating the wolves we face within and outside of ourselves.

Our Wolves by Luanne Castle may be few pages but they pack a powerful punch. Castle never ceases to surprise me as a reader.

RATING: Cinquain

About the Poet:

Luanne Castle lives in Arizona, next to a wash that wildlife use as a thoroughfare. She has published two full-length poetry collections, Rooted and Winged (Finishing Line Press 2022) and Doll God (Aldrich/Kelsay 2015), which won the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry. Kin Types (Finishing Line Press 2017), a chapbook of poetry and flash nonfiction, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Our Wolves (Alien Buddha Press 2023) is her second chapbook. Luanne’s Pushcart and Best of the Net-nominated poetry and prose have appeared in Copper Nickel, American Journal of Poetry, Pleiades, River Teeth, TAB, Verse Daily, Saranac Review, and other journals.

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National Poetry Month 2023

April 2, 2023 by

Welcome to National Poetry Month!

I encourage everyone to read poetry this month or take in a reading near you.

Every day, you can get a poem in inbox!

On April 26 at 7 p.m., the Academy of American Poets will host its virtual Poetry & the Creative Mind gala. You can register for free or make a donation.

If you’re a teacher, here are some classroom resources to help your students celebrate poetry.

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On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe (audio)

March 29, 2023 by

Source: Library
Audiobook; 9+ hrs.
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On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe, narrated by Chinasa Ojbuagu, is my 4th book for the 12 books 12 friends reading challenge.

***Those who have been raped, sexually assaulted, or human/sexually trafficked, be warned that this book is graphic and triggering.***

Sisi, Ama, Efe, and Joyce are four different women from Africa who come to Antwerp, Belgium, in pursuit of independence and finances for their own dreams in an unforgiving business of sex. Chinasa Ojbuagu‘s narration was not as differentiated as I would have liked for each character, and the story lines are fragmented, shifting from present to past, but it didn’t distract from the compelling story of these women.

While in Belgium, they each focus on their goals and share little of their real selves with the women they share an apartment with. Each has Madam and their pimp Dele in common, but their reasons for coming to Europe vary. In this book, desire is the main motivator – the desire for a better life among women under the thumb of men and society and for money as Dele and Madam use “slaves” to achieve their own dreams.

This novel is nothing but horrifying. There’s so much desire for a better life that these women are blinded by it, but at the same time, these women have faced significant trauma in their childhoods. Where is the bottom? Is there a new bottom? Or is the choice to sell yourself to men an empowering decision? This is muddled in the narrative because the trauma they face in their own nations would be a low point, but coming to Europe is not the freedom they expect it to be.

On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe is stark in its horror, and remember these are real people’s lives (not just the lives of these characters). Reality can be the most horrifying thing you can face.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Author:

Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and now lives in Turnhout, Belgium, with her husband and four children. She writes in English and Dutch.

In April 2014 she was selected for the Hay Festival’s Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature.
.
Unigwe holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an MA from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. She also holds a PhD from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, having completed a thesis entitled “In the shadow of Ala. Igbo women writing as an act of righting” in 2004.

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Above Ground by Clint Smith

March 28, 2023 by

Source: Publisher
Paperback, 128 pgs.
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Above Ground by Clint Smith explores the impact of parenthood on a worldview, and how our historical institutions and personal histories influence their parenting, and how the social and political turmoil can creep into your life.

The collection opens with “All at Once” provides readers an opening sense of overwhelm. Everything is happening simultaneously in different places from the child learning to walk to the wildfires destroying the forest to teachers calling parents about good deeds of students to scientists finding a vaccine to a mother getting the sad news that cancer has returned. All of it is overwhelming in so many ways, much like becoming a parent can be. Isn’t that when the worries start piling up?

Smith’s poems are fundamental and sweet — the anticipation of a child’s birth even across miles and over FaceTime. But they also can call us to the chopping block like in “When People Say ‘We Have Made it Through Worse Before'”: “But there is/no solace in rearranging language to make a different word/tell the same lie. Sometimes the moral arc of the universe//does not bend in a direction that comforts us./ (pg. 12) and in “Roots” where the narrator reminds us: “Your life is only possible because of his ability/to have walked through this country on fire/without turning into ash.” (pg. 25)

“Lines in the Sand” is a poem that should speak to every parent and should tell our policymakers to rethink their actions. I cannot begin to tell you how emotional the lines in the poem are. “Legacy” is another of my favorites. It is just beautiful.

Above Ground by Clint Smith is more than a collection about parenting and parenthood. It’s about the care we should take with all the children, with our Earth, and with our own lives. We should not be idle and we should take our own steps to make things better. We want to stay alive, we must act, not be idle.

RATING: Cinquain

About the Poet:

Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2021. He is also the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. His forthcoming poetry collection, Above Ground, will be published March 28, 2023.

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Sound Fury by Mark Levine

March 23, 2023 by

Source: Publisher
Paperback, 80 pgs.
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Sound Fury by Mark Levine assaults the reader, bombarding them with broken words and lines at unexpected times, sounds that render readers concussed in many ways. “There go another million minutes/In the history of the misery/” (pg. 62-4, “‘strange shadows on you tend'”) His poems tackle a wide range of subjects from identity to ecological destruction, but sometimes the poems are so focused on artistry that the themes are muddled and obscured.

Despite these drawbacks, the collection does provide readers with vignettes of sorrow and insanity. Like in “Lark” where a storm causes significant damage, yet the narrator and the family slept through it.

Lark (pg. 1)

Storm of storms: We slept through it
In golden stupor. True, it
Did its damage before it withdrew. It
Emptied our orchard of unharvested fruit
Along with a fruit-picking crew it
Hurled hither and yon, bushels askew; it
Did not apologize, either, though a few it-
Ty bitty groans slipped through it-
S pores, a sorrowful fugue.

In “Thing and All,” the narrator laments the anonymity and desire for fame or being known, but by the end “It might feel like something/To feel something capturing you/In milled mirroring lenses/As you are and would be/But that self-love/Is nostalgia.”(pg. 18) Here, there is a sense that even self-love is an illusion in this chaotic world.

Levine seems to take “Delight in Disorder,” of course a poem in the collection. And his poem “‘strange shadows on you tend,'” reminds us of the fleeting nature of this chaos we try to make sense of with our assaulted senses: “It is not that he was never here/Or that we were never here./It’s just, oh just that he and we/Have lost a way/Together.” Sound Fury by Mark Levine has moments of clear lucidity and absolute chaos, what we take from the collection is all that we’ve carried with us in this wild world.

Rating: Tercet

About the Poet:

Mark Levine is author of Debt, among others. He is professor of poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is editor of the Kuhl House Poets series for the University of Iowa Press. Levine lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

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Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

March 22, 2023 by

Source: Public Library
Hardcover, 320 pgs.
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Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto, was my work’s book club pick for March, is a coming of age story that takes a long trip off the rails of normal living. Meddelin Chan is an Indo-Chinese-American whose mother and aunties who can be a little stifling and over-bearing. This leaves her little room to be herself until she gets to live on a college campus and she meets the man of her dreams, Nathan.

SPOILER ALERT: Okay, Nathan would be the man of anyone’s dreams because honestly, he loves her no matter who she’s killed or what kind of trouble she gets into. That’s amazing to me. END SPOILER

When she returns from school after making a monumental life decision with little thought other than about a family curse and her familial obligations, the wedding business gets into full swing with her mother as a florist, her aunts as entertainment, makeup, and baker, and herself as the photographer. They are successful at this line of work, but Meddy is still not dating (ignore that 3 yr. relationship in college that her family knew nothing about).

This is where things go awry for Meddy. Her blind date is a horror show and the rest of the book from here is so over-the-top and ridiculous, it makes you want to cry with laughter. It’s definitely a comedy and not a serious murder mystery.

“I’m stuck in a nightmare. I know it. Maybe I got a concussion from the accident. Maybe I’m actually in a coma, and my coma-brain is coming up with this weird-ass scenario, because there is no way I’m actually sitting here, in the kitchen, watching my oldest aunties eat a mango and Ma and Fourth Aunt argue while Jake lies cooling in the trunk of my car.” (pg. 62)

The narrative style makes this relatable because Meddy is doing the talking and giving us all the ins-and-outs along the way, and the plot is just hilarious misstep after hilarious misstep. What bothered me and kept me from giving it a Quatrain rating was that it went a little too far with the over-the-top plotting. It was no longer believable to me in how the murder was resolved and wrapped up. Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto is a fun ride, and there happens to be a sequel. It’s definitely a book that will lighten your spirits even if there is a death involved.

RATING: Tercet and a half.

About the Author:

Jesse Q Sutanto grew up shuttling back and forth between Jakarta and Singapore and sees both cities as her homes. She has a Masters degree from Oxford University, though she has yet to figure out a way of saying that without sounding obnoxious. She is currently living back in Jakarta on the same street as her parents and about seven hundred meddlesome aunties. When she’s not tearing out her hair over her latest WIP, she spends her time baking and playing FPS games. Oh, and also being a mom to her two kids.

Filed Under: borrowed copy, challenges, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2023, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Twice in a Lifetime by Melissa Baron (audio)

March 21, 2023 by

Source: Borrowed
Hoopla, 9+ hrs.
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Twice in a Lifetime by Melissa Baron, narrated by Megan Tusing, is a time-travel romance and my 3rd book for the 12 books 12 friends reading challenge.

***Those who have severe anxiety, a recent death in the family, or have suicidal thoughts should be warned about reading this book.***

Isla Abbott has severe anxiety and lost her mother, causing her to leave Chicago for just outside St. Louis. As a graphic designer, she starts again and works mostly remote, but soon she starts getting texts from a different timeline. Ewan Park enters her life in the most unusual way, but there is an undeniable connect, even as she remains awkward and anxiety-ridden.

Isla is tough to handle at times as a reader because you hear her inner thoughts, but that’s what’s so beautiful about Baron’s characterization. She understands anxiety and the incessant voice that puts you down, and she understands the overwhelming pressure that anxiety can be.

Ewan and Isla’s relationship is unconventional given the circumstances, but oh so lovely when they connect. Baron’s novel is tragic and emotional, a roller coaster. Twice in a Lifetime by Melissa Baron is a tough book to review, but definitely one that touches on fate and love and will be hard to forget.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Author:

Melissa Baron is a copywriter and technical writer from Chicago. She holds a B.A. in English and is a Denver Publishing Institute graduate. She regularly contributes to Book Riot and works as a book staffer at the annual Heartland Fall Forum. In her spare time, she likes to travel with her fiancé and play with their two cats, Denali and Mango. Twice in a Lifetime is her first novel.

 

Filed Under: audiobooks, borrowed copy, challenges, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2023, reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Spare by Prince Harry (audio)

March 14, 2023 by

Source: Purchased
Audible, 15+ hrs.
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Spare by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, who narrates his own memoir, is one man’s struggle with his role in life (one he was born into), the death of his mother (which he avoided grieving for far too many years), and who loves his wife and his family (all of his family). How do you deal with the death of a mother, particularly in such a sensational and horrific way that Princess Diana died? How do you navigate a privileged life as a spare who isn’t exactly expected to carry the royal name into the future? How do you protect your family from a press that is allowed to run free and do as it pleases and is often fueled by petty family jealousies and informants?

No matter what you think about the royal family or how the press works, etc., it is clear that the horrific death of Princess Diana profoundly shaped Prince Harry and how he viewed the British press from the start. He was a young boy when he lost his mother, and reading about how the family reacted and did little to help him adjust and mourn is heartbreaking. The love his mother had for him and his brother also nurtured his love of family and the belief in family loyalty and protection, much to his detriment. He assumed many things about his own family and its priorities. There are many instances where he gives them the benefit of the doubt in how they treated him and his wife, but that benefit of the doubt was clearly misplaced time and time again.

The drawbacks for me were the unexamined privilege he has and didn’t acknowledge, and what seemed to me a glossing over of how the British press and its close relationship with the Royals helped him. Overall, Prince Harry was clearly adrift and in need of direction, which he found in the military despite the obstacles (including the Royal family and his brother). Does he have more self-examination to do? Yes, but don’t we all.

Spare by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is a page-turner, and definitely an emotional read. It’s a sad look at a young man without enough support from his family. Family here is focused on preserving the monarchy and little else. The relationship between the brothers was not that solid to start with and it is clear that becoming the heir further fractured the relationship between Harry and his brother. If anything, right or wrong, this is a memoir of a broken family and a man who will protect his wife and children first.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Author:

Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex is a husband, father, humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate, environmentalist, and bestselling author. He resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his family and three dogs. His memoir, Spare, was published on January 10, 2023.

Filed Under: audiobooks, challenges, memoir, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, purchased, Read in 2023, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafo (audio)

March 7, 2023 by

Source: Public Library
Audiobook: 4+ hrs.
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Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor, narrated by Adjoa Andoh and my 2nd book for the 12 books 12 friends reading challenge, opens with Sankofa walking through a Ghanaian village of ghosts, where people hide when she walks the streets. This opening immediately makes this story curious. Why are the villagers hiding from her? Is she dangerous?

Soon she pays a visit to a home, and announces, “Death has come to visit.”

Sankofa has a life before this in which she was known as Fatima. Even at age five she held the dust from a meteor shower without feeling its heat, and when she found a seed in a box, her imagination is all her parents and brother see. Of course, there are government officials who know better.

This story is both futuristic and in the present at the same time, steeped in traditions of Ghana. Planes and drones, unknown seeds, and abilities to manipulate light, time, and space. Adjoa Andoh is an engaging narrator and had me hooked on this story from the beginning, though I suspect that has a lot to do with the Okorafor’s material.

Fatima is transformed and when the light comes, she’s unable to control it and villages and individuals will be lifeless. She also cannot use technology without rendering it useless. Her journey is now as the angel of death, and she’s nomadic for much of the story as she searches for the seed that is stolen from her. Alone, she embarks on a journey of discovery. Is she empathy and compassion or is she evil like the villagers believe?

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor is captivating from the first page, and it is clear that there is a juxtaposition between cultural superstition and the old ways and the advancement of technology. But at its heart the story is about a young, orphaned girl looking for her place in the world, one that fears her.

RATING: Cinquain

About the Author:

Nnedimma Nkemdili “Nnedi” Okorafor is a Nigerian-American writer of science fiction and fantasy for both children and adults. She is best known for her Binti Series and her novels Who Fears Death, Zahrah the Windseeker, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Lagoon and Remote Control. She has also written for comics and film.

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Mount Fuji: 36 Sonnets by Jay Hall Carpenter

March 2, 2023 by

Source: the poet
Paperback, 41 pgs.
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Mount Fuji: 36 Sonnets by Jay Hall Carpenter, a homage to “36 Views of Mount Fuji” by Katsushika Hoskusai, is a collection of sonnets exploring life, death, love, and being an artist.

In the opening sonnet, “Cathedral and Artisan,” the poet reflects on a life as a sculptor at the National Cathedral in D.C., or so it seems, and while the art seems impervious to age, the artist is weary and aging. It is a sonnet in homage to the artist and his work. “Too soon, we souls who built you will be gone,/But through the centuries you’ll sing our song!” There’s a sense of nostalgia in this poem and in the one that follows, but there also is the feeling that what is in the past is okay as part of the past.

As a reader of poetry, I understand the appeal of the sonnet and its familiar rhythms and rhymes, but for me, it feels forced on some occasions in this collection, but not in a way that is jarring or takes you out of the poem. You just get the sense that the poet has had to work hard to create the verse, maybe a little too hard.

The more personal poems work best for me in this collection, though the ones based on art or art work are nice additions to the forms discussed. One of my favorites in the collection is “Last Resort”:

Last Resort (pg. 25)

My lady loves to navigate the planet
While I would vegetate where I was born,
But when she lights the flame to go, I fan it --

And later in the poem:

And here we stew, awash in Pilgrim slime;
Regret is how I mark the passing time.

We can all understand these feelings of regret born of adventure gone astray, and we all feel the passage of time. Sometimes more acutely than we would like. Mount Fuji: 36 Sonnets by Jay Hall Carpenter is collection of sonnets exploring the human condition with an artist’s eye.

RATING: Tercet

Other Reviews:

About the Poet:

Jay Hall Carpenter is an author and artist living in Maryland. His written works include plays, musicals, children’s books, and poetry. For several years he published The ACE Occasionally, a small literary humor magazine. “Dark and Light” is his first collection of poetry.

Carpenter’s career in the visual arts spans forty years and began at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., where he designed 520 of the Cathedral’s sculptural embellishments, including gargoyles and angels. His public sculptures, monuments, smaller bronzes, and drawings can be found throughout the United States and at JayHallCarpenter.com.

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