Sorrow Arrow

by Emily Kendal Frey

Wily, witty and weird, often haunting, sometimes heartbreaking, [Frey's] poems…dive deep, for all their individual brevity.

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2014

About the author

EMILY KENDAL FREY is the author of THE GRIEF PERFORMANCE as well as several chapbooks and chapbook collaborations, including Airport (Blue Hour 2009), Frances (Poor Claudia 2010), The New Planet (Mindmade Books 2010), and Baguette (Cash Machine 2013). A second collection, SORROW ARROW, was published by Octopus Books in 2014. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she hosts The New Privacy.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The magic of an EKF poem is that it feels both improvisational and intensely focused. Sorrow Arrow is a collection so stabby and jabby and oozy and woozy, it deserves a status higher than poetry. It's a real person in a real body in a real life and one that will feel connected to you if you keep your heart open. Also, it's funny and daringly sexy at times. It's a weird gift, tied in an elaborate and fucked up bow.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily writes some beautiful lines. She uses these really fantastic images and words that remind me of a lot of my other favorite contemporary poets, but there's also a really deeply personal quality that makes it feel like you're doing some real emotional math here with her. Like the two of you together are sitting down and really hashing out deep questions about how we're supposed to make sense of living and interacting with each other. I love this book, Emily. Thank you.

[Frances Dinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some favorite lines:

"My badness evolves into another bird"

"Your self hatred has lost its precision"

"I'll love you later people sometimes say/Not now is a dynasty/Time stacks up then rises, steaming not-love/Eat it and love it"

"Another article about bees dying off/Imagine fields of clover, unhumming"

"I name my god Get It Together"

[Moira · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The sky shitting its soft hope"

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really sad, really inventive, really fucking good. I am a really dumb poetry reader, but the vibe I got changed a lot as I moved through the book. In earlier poems I felt an acerbic playfulness, but towards the end I just wanted to stay in my apartment and feel bad about everything, but in the best way possible, because a piece of art had just presented a beautiful, controlled, haunting way of looking at the world, and I was like, fuck, with the possible exception of nacho preparation, l'll never be this good at anything.

[Carrie Lorig · Rating 4 out of 5]

blades / blades / blades

fucking fantastic.

[Sara]

More fluid than The Grief Performance, but not as memorable.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something about Emily's poetry (some of the first I encountered in this single-line stanza format that is everywhere these days) seems pivotal. Sentimentality, bawdiness, brutality, grotesquery, tenderness — and, yup, sorrow — pierce these odd assemblages repeatedly, poking holes of light through which we glimpse a number of relationships and one singular mind.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful collection of poetry, stream of consciousness writing, using familiar words combined in creative and unusual combinations, observations of life and the world around us. Often ironic, sometimes funny, sad, erotic, a swirl of the emotions of life, fun to read and reread.

[Jillian Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of lines that are, on the surface, non-sequiturs but allow the book to be read both forwards & backwards. I, personally, prefer the backwards reading. There are some absolutely stunning lines in here.

[MijkeGoth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started folding the pages of my favorite poems but turned out it was useless cause i love them all

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems are a real treat! Funny, fun, sassy and intelligent. I read straight through and would be happy to do so a few times.

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

like a million in a station at the metros.

[Rusty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some lines in here I'll have a hard time forgetting but overall it's a little diffuse for me.

[Sarah’s Book Nook Corner · Rating 1 out of 5]

?????????

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's as good as I'd hoped and it's angry that it wants to die.

[Ella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Single line poetry that feels performative or perhaps just not made for my specific affinity towards story centered writing.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What works in these poems is a blend of surprising turns from line to line, including humor, crassness, imagery at once urban and pastoral, a sense of the speaker divulging a secret, something private, and an intellectual power that pulls it together. So many of these in a book (the whole in the same form), I inevitably picked and waited for favorites, but pretty much every single one hits the mark at some point if not throughout.

"You are unmoored
There's a word for it
In some countries they are napping
Waves hitting the shore
How did we get so naked
Out back there are rats in the compost
Egg shells and oranges
The neighborhood babies
We want not to suffer
We suffer from this want
Hour by hour
Piss and toilet paper
The mighty will not be felled by syllables
Sometimes I miss not one thing
The back of my throat a perfect road
With a new haircut
Your identity crisis got on the bus
I saw a barn in the distance
I had no intention
I wanted it to be our barn
I'm no more angelic than an albino pigeon
Made of French Fries
Made of park sex"

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skinned down to the bone, each line absent of excess meat, these poems hit me like the bullet I actually try to nail myself with. They are heartbreaking, emotional without the sap, and bizzarely sexy, all while consistently showcasing original, whimsical talent. Frey certainly knows how to make me want to tear and chuckle in a single cropped line. She makes this art look so damn effortless. Keep your mind open as you read these. She won't give it all away at once. Oh, and she's a Portland poet. Hell yeah.

[Bryan J. Pitchford, MFA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have you ever been so drunk or high you looked around the room pointing at things and naming them aloud in sequence? Tall box. Ripe banana. Coffee table. And then you throw in some nonsense for the hell of it. Green dog. Sorrow arrow. Wooden blanket. And then you get to the end of a page, think you have a poem, and move on to the next beer or the next joint and the next room.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sorrow Arrow contains not one but TWO of the greatest lines of poetry ever, in my opinion:

"It's raining like a bitchy teenager"

"I name my god Get It Together"

My favorite book of poetry from 2014; one of my favorite poetry collections; one of my favorite books, period.

An astonishing work.

[Tom · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Let me be shitty a little longer" (p. 67). No, thank you.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional.

[Jared Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pigeon drags another pigeon to a tree

Eats