Scan barcode
A review by cstefko
Sun in Days: Poems by Meghan O'Rourke
4.0
3.5 stars
This collection starts off really strong and slowly loses steam, but I did really appreciate it. Rounding up my star rating for overall quality of writing style, even if there were some individual poems I didn't love (the longer poems were a mixed bag for me, but had some nice moments). O'Rourke tackles some really heavy topics (grief, miscarriage/infertility, chronic pain) and makes them very accessible but still illuminates them in a unique way. (A random aside: I've noticed a trend, if you can call it that, in contemporary poetry where there's an introductory poem all by itself, followed by sections of poems. This is probably the third or fourth time I've seen that in the past year, and I never noticed it before! It's kind of an interesting way to set the tone for the collection, but it's kind of hit or miss whether it actually is effective in that purpose...)
Highlights:
The title poem is a nice meditation on youth/childhood and memory.
These lines from "Mnemonic" are just next level poetry, and I bow to their excellence: "What / have I done with this year of living? / I fretted & fanged, / was a kind of / slang of myself." Get it.
"The Night Where You No Longer Live" is a clever musing on the moment of dying.
"Ever" was one of my favorite poems in the collection, and I love the way she uses repetition to reinforce the frustrating, broken record-like quality of grief.
"Mistaken Self-Portrait as Mother of an Unmade Daughter" has some really poignant observations about existence.
"At Père Lachaise" is just lovely, a bit of melancholy imagination.
Some great lines from "Idiopathic Illness:" "What can be said? I came w/o a warranty. / Stripped of me--or me-ish-ness-- / I was a will in a subpar body. / I waxed toward all that waned."
I usually don't like poems about actual childbirth for reasons, but "Mortals" was the perfect bittersweet description.
I definitely think it's a collection worth checking out, and I will probably read more by O'Rourke in the future.
This collection starts off really strong and slowly loses steam, but I did really appreciate it. Rounding up my star rating for overall quality of writing style, even if there were some individual poems I didn't love (the longer poems were a mixed bag for me, but had some nice moments). O'Rourke tackles some really heavy topics (grief, miscarriage/infertility, chronic pain) and makes them very accessible but still illuminates them in a unique way. (A random aside: I've noticed a trend, if you can call it that, in contemporary poetry where there's an introductory poem all by itself, followed by sections of poems. This is probably the third or fourth time I've seen that in the past year, and I never noticed it before! It's kind of an interesting way to set the tone for the collection, but it's kind of hit or miss whether it actually is effective in that purpose...)
Highlights:
The title poem is a nice meditation on youth/childhood and memory.
These lines from "Mnemonic" are just next level poetry, and I bow to their excellence: "What / have I done with this year of living? / I fretted & fanged, / was a kind of / slang of myself." Get it.
"The Night Where You No Longer Live" is a clever musing on the moment of dying.
"Ever" was one of my favorite poems in the collection, and I love the way she uses repetition to reinforce the frustrating, broken record-like quality of grief.
"Mistaken Self-Portrait as Mother of an Unmade Daughter" has some really poignant observations about existence.
"At Père Lachaise" is just lovely, a bit of melancholy imagination.
Some great lines from "Idiopathic Illness:" "What can be said? I came w/o a warranty. / Stripped of me--or me-ish-ness-- / I was a will in a subpar body. / I waxed toward all that waned."
I usually don't like poems about actual childbirth for reasons, but "Mortals" was the perfect bittersweet description.
I definitely think it's a collection worth checking out, and I will probably read more by O'Rourke in the future.