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A review by jenna_le
Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar
4.0
There are acres of gorgeous golden id in this book of poems about addiction and diasporic Persian identity. In the poem "Tassiopeia," the speaker gives himself an origin story, likening himself to the fabled queen Cassiopeia, whose braggadocio led to catastrophe, and mythologizing his own unruly passionate nature: "[T]he womb is a clammy pulp.... I came out / hot as a punched jaw." This radiant self-mythologization manifests in poem after poem: "[M]y ancestor / was a dervish saint...." "I charged into desire like a / tiger sprinting off the edge of / the world...." But here and there between these dazzlingly romantic images of an idealized self, the poet's persona also expresses real self-reproach for a youth marred by "coldness" and "carelessness": "I answered every cry for help with a pour with a turning away...." "I spent so long...misnaming / lovers and tripping over the homeless...." And he recounts the challenges, physical and spiritual, of recovery: "I live in the gulf / between what I've been given / and what I've received. // Each morning, I dig into the sand / and bury something I love. / Nothing decomposes."
One of my favorite poems was "Orchids Are Sprouting From the Floorboards," which takes one simple idea and spins it out to the maximum extent:
"The car's tires leave a trail of orchids.
A bouquet of orchids lifts from its tailpipe.
Teenagers are texting each other pictures
of orchids on their phones, which are also orchids...."
One poem that coheres into a successful whole is "My Kingdom for a Murmur of Fanfare," which ends,
"All I want is to finally
take off my cowboy hat and show you my jeweled
horns. If we slow dance I will ask you not to tug
on them, but secretly I will want that very much."
"Ways to Harm a Thing" begins,
"Throw scissors at it.
Fill it with straw
and set it on fire, or set it
off for the colonies with only
some books and dinner-
plates and a stuffed bear
named Friend Bear for me
to lose in New Jersey...."
Akbar is a poet who really knows how to turn a phrase: "eternity looms / in the corner like a home invader saying don't mind me I'm just here to watch you nap" might be the best, but I also liked these lines, addressed to the object of the speaker's fruitless "craving": "If you / could be anything in the world // you would."
One of my favorite poems was "Orchids Are Sprouting From the Floorboards," which takes one simple idea and spins it out to the maximum extent:
"The car's tires leave a trail of orchids.
A bouquet of orchids lifts from its tailpipe.
Teenagers are texting each other pictures
of orchids on their phones, which are also orchids...."
One poem that coheres into a successful whole is "My Kingdom for a Murmur of Fanfare," which ends,
"All I want is to finally
take off my cowboy hat and show you my jeweled
horns. If we slow dance I will ask you not to tug
on them, but secretly I will want that very much."
"Ways to Harm a Thing" begins,
"Throw scissors at it.
Fill it with straw
and set it on fire, or set it
off for the colonies with only
some books and dinner-
plates and a stuffed bear
named Friend Bear for me
to lose in New Jersey...."
Akbar is a poet who really knows how to turn a phrase: "eternity looms / in the corner like a home invader saying don't mind me I'm just here to watch you nap" might be the best, but I also liked these lines, addressed to the object of the speaker's fruitless "craving": "If you / could be anything in the world // you would."