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warloujoyce 's review for:
Calling a Wolf a Wolf
by Kaveh Akbar
dark
reflective
slow-paced
reread 02/15/2024
Normalize realizing and admitting that we’re wrong.
I reread this because I came across my copy while browsing other unread poetry collections I was choosing from. Some lines leaped up from memory, prompting me to think I was wrong about my first impression. Result: I came back to this realizing that I barely scratched the surface during my first read.
Akbar’s work mostly speaks of addiction, alcoholism, and recovery—of living in a body that you want to escape, bitterly waking up every day discovering is still your own, and despite that (or because of this complicated relationship), one that you still want to cradle. Raw and visceral. Is it now one of my favorites? Maybe.
It’s hard to speak of something so gauche as ambition while the whole wheezing mosaic chips away but let it be known I do hope one day to be free of this body’s dry wood if living proves anything it’s that such astonishment is possible
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It’s hard to speak of something so gauche as ambition while the whole wheezing mosaic chips away but let it be known I do hope one day to be free of this body’s dry wood if living proves anything it’s that such astonishment is possible
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“I’ve given this coldness many names thinking if it had a name it would have a solution thinking if I called a wolf a wolf I might dull its fangs…”
This collection felt like a mixed bag for me—a combination of extremes, really. Several pieces and lines moved me and earned visceral reaction. Those I will keep coming back to. <3
“I'm becoming more a vessel of memories than a person it's a myth
that love lives in the heart it lives in the throat we push it out
when we speak when we gasp we take a little for ourselves”
(just wow)
But the thing is, I didn’t connect with many of them. Some poems felt disjointed and I thought some metaphors didn’t make sense, which disrupted my reading flow with a “huh?” The similes and metaphors felt randomly assembled that while I kind of understood the individual portions, they felt disconnected somehow when taken together as a whole.
Then again, who am I to critique the composition and technical elements? I’m not an expert. My rating just reflects my personal enjoyment and connection with the collection.
I’m still uncertain about the rating, though. I loved some poems, especially in the 1st section entitled ‘Terminal.’ One thing’s for sure, I will definitely read other collections by the poet.
But the thing is, I didn’t connect with many of them. Some poems felt disjointed and I thought some metaphors didn’t make sense, which disrupted my reading flow with a “huh?” The similes and metaphors felt randomly assembled that while I kind of understood the individual portions, they felt disconnected somehow when taken together as a whole.
Then again, who am I to critique the composition and technical elements? I’m not an expert. My rating just reflects my personal enjoyment and connection with the collection.
I’m still uncertain about the rating, though. I loved some poems, especially in the 1st section entitled ‘Terminal.’ One thing’s for sure, I will definitely read other collections by the poet.
“my body follows me around asking
for things. I try to think louder, try
to be brilliant, wildly brilliant.”