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darrin's review
5.0
Rebecca Morgan Frank's poetry is word-driven, full of meaning and thoughtful. Many times, after finishing a poem, I went back and read it again several times to parse out the meaning of every carefully crafted line and stanza.
Many of her poems dwell on lives displaced or people out of sync, out of touch or not accepted by their respective communities. A perfect example is, At Sea, on page 56, which is a particularly apt and vivid description of dementia and memory loss.
At Sea
Every three seconds, to recall captivity,
the mind slipping in on itself and its past,
and knowing it. She sounds like a politician:
I cannot recall. I am afraid I do not remember.
If only the mind could bury itself at the bottom
of the sea, wavering tentacles flexible
to the new currents. Instead it rides the rising
waves, bobbing up again and again,
drifting farther away from land it was not
meant for, from everything familiar.
And yet sometimes a detail will emerge, like a nose
pressed up against the aquarium glass,
the jellyfish trying to make sense of the nostrils,
the dim lighting, how it came to be, and be here.
I did not know who Vernon Dahmer was when I read the poem Bombed in memory of Vernon Dahmer 1908 - 1966, on page 35. I immediately gave myself a history lesson, though, and found information on the Southern Poverty Law Center website.
Additionally, Rosewood Triptych and Postscript from Mississippi conclude part I. of the book, both of which describe the civil rights struggle in the south....Here are some lines from Rosewood Triptych.
Rosewood Triptych
...
Ruins of houses breathed in the wind
through the cracks, generations
of cats claimed
each home as a hatch, a half shell
life of hunting, no more
humans
who were themselves hunted, who hid
in swamps, wading away
from mobs.
...
This is one of my random, blind pull-downs from the library bookshelf and one of the better books of poetry I have read so far this year. I would guess that Rebecca Morgan Frank is introverted (this is praise) and thoughtful. Her poetry is observant and critical and leaves you with the realization that there is so much left to do to make this country one for all to live in.
Many of her poems dwell on lives displaced or people out of sync, out of touch or not accepted by their respective communities. A perfect example is, At Sea, on page 56, which is a particularly apt and vivid description of dementia and memory loss.
At Sea
Every three seconds, to recall captivity,
the mind slipping in on itself and its past,
and knowing it. She sounds like a politician:
I cannot recall. I am afraid I do not remember.
If only the mind could bury itself at the bottom
of the sea, wavering tentacles flexible
to the new currents. Instead it rides the rising
waves, bobbing up again and again,
drifting farther away from land it was not
meant for, from everything familiar.
And yet sometimes a detail will emerge, like a nose
pressed up against the aquarium glass,
the jellyfish trying to make sense of the nostrils,
the dim lighting, how it came to be, and be here.
I did not know who Vernon Dahmer was when I read the poem Bombed in memory of Vernon Dahmer 1908 - 1966, on page 35. I immediately gave myself a history lesson, though, and found information on the Southern Poverty Law Center website.
Additionally, Rosewood Triptych and Postscript from Mississippi conclude part I. of the book, both of which describe the civil rights struggle in the south....Here are some lines from Rosewood Triptych.
Rosewood Triptych
...
Ruins of houses breathed in the wind
through the cracks, generations
of cats claimed
each home as a hatch, a half shell
life of hunting, no more
humans
who were themselves hunted, who hid
in swamps, wading away
from mobs.
...
This is one of my random, blind pull-downs from the library bookshelf and one of the better books of poetry I have read so far this year. I would guess that Rebecca Morgan Frank is introverted (this is praise) and thoughtful. Her poetry is observant and critical and leaves you with the realization that there is so much left to do to make this country one for all to live in.
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