Spring's Fall

by Harambee K. Grey-Sun

The story of one young man crossing the burning bridge between innocence and experience, Spring's Fall is a narrative dramatic poem comprised of several stand-alone poems about fitting in and falling out, finding oneself and losing oneself, and discovering the meanings of life, love, and identity. An unusual but familiar coming-of-age narrative, Spring's Fall is a poem written in an unfashionable style that represents both the uniqueness and awkwardness felt by many adolescents trying to find their place in a world seemingly made for everyone else but them.

188 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2013

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can someone explain to me... as I go to publish this review, there are only two ratings for the book. A one star, and a two star. But the listing for the book has THREE stars! This is not the result of other editions.

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 1.0/5.

I wouldn't normally request a book of poetry, but the descriptions of it ("a concept album in musical words" and "an experiment" and even "possibly a mistake") had me thinking that this was going to be poetry of a sort not found in the typical chapbooks. I thought that this would be a book of poetry that was unusual and deep and something that one could really sink their teeth in to.

I was wrong.

This is a completely average collection of poetry that, strung together, tell a bit of a story of a young man's struggles.

In author Harambee Grey-Sun's introduction he writes:

Rejecting the "rules" of what contemporary poetry should be, Spring's Fall is unapologetically unfashionable, written in the spirit of the complex-but-imperfect music many of us hear and sing to our insecure selves in adolescence.*

And truth be told, this sounds exciting.  Rejecting 'rules' of contemporary poetry?  I'm all for it.  But the poetry within is not only average in content, but pretty darned 'contemporary,' even following 'rules' of rhyme scheme.  Take, for instance:

The crowd stills, freezes;
statues stoned.
For one moment, I'm all alone
in blood-flooding lights
--no laughter, no bodies
but that of Felicity's
at my feet. My sword,
I drop. I follow
on my knees.
Here come the sobs,
here comes the breeze...
no--
crimson snow,
the only weather to show
what I dare not say
but what my diseased heart knows.*

The only 'music' I hear is an imperfect rhyme scheme and some alliteration.

We can tell, from the author's passion in his introduction, and the depths of emotion that he tries to create in the poetry, that this story is meaningful and deep to him, but it does not come across to the reader.  Instead, this appears to be just another YA story, full of drama and pathos, told in verse.

Grey-Sun might do well to market this to the Young Adult reader who enjoys sharing in the deep emotional current that Spring's Fall wades in to.  It's not nearly as deep and remarkable and unusual as he thinks it to be.  This may be an indication that the author is out of touch with the market and the target audience.  The last line of his introduction:

A poem very much out of its place and time, Spring's Fall is not an easy read, but it's not nearly as challenging as growing up.*

shows that he is out of touch with his own work.  The poem is hardly out of its place and time, but I would agree that the book is not an easy read, though not for the same reasons that he believes.  And the fact that growing up is challenging is also something we'll agree on, but not something that he is the first to discover or write about.

(* Quotes are from an Advance Reading Copy and may not reflect what is printed in the published version.)

Looking for a good book?  This is not it.

[Benni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of poetry starts off strong, and promises in the beginning to be a great glimpse of the inner workings of a boy growing up. The boy, Sevin, "ambles around his hometown one last time, reminiscing about the moments that made him into the young man he's become." Sevin repeats that he is just "passing through"--an attempt to distance himself from his past. We're not sure if he's going to be successful, so we're along for the ride, anxious to relive his journey.

But when we leave the realm of memory and arrive in the realm of dreams, the poems grow self-indulgent, literally comparing relationships to battles in the arena. Undoubtedly, emotions for every teenager are bound to feel as epic as Heaven and Hell, but this aspect of the book was overwrought.

As if the author realizes the storyline becomes hard to follow because it is so very metaphorical, the poems are followed by a prose explanation. This surprised me to no end. When your poems need extensive explanation, it's time to rewrite the poems. Or at least allow your readers some creative freedom in interpretation.

In the introduction, the author explains that his poems "reject[] the 'rules' of what contemporary poetry should be." I'm not certain what rules he is referring to, and this seems to either imply that (1) the poems are groundbreaking in some way or (2) the author needs an excuse for his fear of nonconformity (as opposed to actual nonconformity).

Well, the poems were neither groundbreaking nor particularly non-conforming. If by breaking the rules the author meant that one shouldn't have to explain his poetry, then I suppose that rule is broken here.

And once the prose starts, it's as if the author believes prose cannot be poetic or eloquent--the explanation he offers is rather dry.

Still, some strong poems in the beginning make this a worthwhile read, enough to warrant three stars.

Review copy provided by Netgalley.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection surprised me. I never expect something free to be good, occasionally I'm pleasantly surprised. This is one such case. Most poems have a unique form, and when a poem isn't entirely different it matches its predecessor perfectly. This is one of the most creative, new poetry collections I've ever read, and with a strong, coming-of-age thing that surprisingly didn't always irritate the heck out of me. I hate coming-of-age stories--I even hated The Catcher in the Rye! However, I loved almost every one of these poems. While I was working in the cornfields this summer, I read them on the bus on the way to the fields and back--the book made my day. Whatever exhaustion or utter annoyance (the people I worked with weren't cooperative, and cussed at me regularly) left me, being too distracted to even think about work.

My only criticism is that the apparent "plotline" isn't clear--at the end is the synopsis, which explains the whole life story of this kid. I didn't like that story. I felt that my interpretation, or the movie I had running in my head was much better. The poet should have left the collection alone, let the reader come to their own conclusion and weave the character together themselves, even if some of the content came from personal experiences. The synopsis ruined it for me, disappointed my imagination. Poetry is open to interpretation--I felt the poet explaining the whole thing took that right away from me. I may be overdramatic, but I'm still angry about it. I keep thinking, "Why the heck did he do that?!"

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review…

I was greatly looking forward to reading Spring’s Fall; I thought the idea of a story told through poetry would be interesting and unique, but instead I was left confused and unengaged quickly in the story. I was hoping that it would pick up and I would like it better once I “got into it,” but that didn’t happen. As I was reading, I checked out some other reviews for the book and I saw that someone had commented that the epilogue to the book explains what was going on. What is the point of reading the whole book and being confused the whole time, only to read at the end all of the details that were impossible to comprehend while reading? If the author knew that an explanation was needed to help the reader follow along, why didn’t the writer do a better job of explaining along the way? I appreciated the artistic endeavour, but I feel like Grey-Sun leaned more towards art incomprehensible to the reader than a story that engages and affirms the reader.

[Elle Markov · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm very 50/50 on this book, the poetry was hit and miss; at some stages of the book the poetry is good and then in some its meh.

The book follows the story of Sevin as he tells the reader about his life with the use of poems. Sevin takes the reader through his life from a misunderstood young child to a temperamental adolescent. The book ends with a look into an adult Sevin, who despite all his flaws and selfish behavior as a young man actually turned out to be a descent guy.

At the end of the book, you really want a sequel, you want to know how he came to mature and become the man we see at the end of the book. The story is good and the character Sevin is relatable, his upbringing is comparable to many people out there.

Rating 2.5 out of 5
Read@Book

[Kimberly Westrope · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the way all of these poems connected to form a story of the author's life, particularly his romantic life, from first love to break-ups and moving on. I realated personally to many of the poems. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's witty and wonderful word usage, very moving and insightful.

This book was a joy to read, and I will probably hang on to it to re-read in the future.

[ke-sha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Link To Review:
http://theforsaken707.blogspot.com/20...