A review by zarvindale
The Murmur Asylum: Poems by Ned Parfan

4.0

Poetry for healing. I must admit I had raised an eyebrow several times the moment I sensed the pastiche of images of the city and images of child abuse early into this debut collection. When I got to the end, I had officially grasped the one theme that unites the poems: trauma. The obvious trauma from sexual assault, and the obvious trauma from a deluge. We may also see glimmers of parallelism between the two subjects: there is flood on the streets as much as there as a flood of fear during rape. However we view them, there is no denying of the shock the persona felt upon experiencing such horrors. We are urged to feel for this persona, for it’s through lyricism can this persona lay down burdens, even if the lyricism can sometimes sound cheesy or irrational. But irrational is what commonly happens when we’re afraid, is it not?