The weather is turning cooler and the days are getting shorter. This would be the perfect time to stop by your local library and check out their new selections. Might I make a suggestion? Poetry books make a great companion when the early sunsets drive you indoors.
I Was Bonnie & Clyde is the latest work by Laura Kasischke. In the work, women take center stage and have their sacrifices acknowledged. Infamous women throughout history are highlighted but the unknowns are not glossed over. They are given a chance to speak to their experiences as they walked through a world that, at times, was not kind. Kasischke also puts emphasis on the normal daily occurrences, creating the sense that this is what defines life.
Gregory Orr returns with his work, We Interrupt This Broadcast. Orr is experiencing something that comes for us all eventually, aging. He shows in his talented lyrical style, how, though his body has changed, his wonder and his ability to find joy and beauty remains. It isn’t just his own history that Orr turns his eye to. He looks at the human race and how in our infinite wisdom failed to realize that the world was not ours, but that we were merely caretakers and unfortunately have not done well at it.
En el norte/soy del sur by José Felipe Alvergue is an exploration of a family’s journey from El Salvador to America. Using sonnets as the bones of the work, Alvergue sets out to show the contradictory nature of how this country uses those that migrate to it but also discards them so easily. Even with documented status, society tends to try to erase the connections of people to their homeland, only allowing what it can find valuable. But Alvergue holds onto these connections tightly, even able to connect his grandparents with his children through storytelling and song. It is through this connection that the author, as well as the reader, are able to find strength and community.
Hide by Carolina Ebeid, is a work that seeks to reconnect a family that has suffered multiple separations. Ebeid, a child of immigrants from both Palestine and Cuba, explores how the ramifications of diaspora can continue to be felt even a generation or two on. In such a severance, growing the line to the past takes on a special importance, as it gives a ground for the future to grow. Ebid uses text overlaying text and image overlaying image, to create a sense of a new iteration coming into being from what came before.
Poetry has the power to bring some lightness into our lives when the days grow a little too long. It brings us comfort and clarity when the world outside gets dark. Hopefully these can be a bit of both to you these coming long nights. Enjoy these books and more at your local library.