A review by zarvindale
Hush Harbor by Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta

5.0

Lately it takes me an hour to finish a poetry collection of 100 pages and less. With this one, I took my sweet time to reread and digest each poem and each section. Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta’s residency in Iowa in 2015 must’ve refined the way she writes. Her poems here are much clearer than those that appear on her previous collections. The lines are more connected, and the poems in general look amusing, as always, on the pages. She has managed to stick to one theme this time too. Her love poems are informed by strong emotions as well as bourgeois art. She takes on visual cues, with the paintings and colors, as much as she mentions auditory effects, such as an arpeggio and a hush. Lonely poems gather and find port in this book, which also acts as a harbor for lucidity.