A beautiful, raw, emotional collection of poems from Christopher M. Tantillo.
In this first volume (of 3), Chris bears his heart and soul in every poem included. Poems that speak of first meetings, young love, longing, ended relationships, hope(s) for love (even rekindling of former love), body dysmorphia, regret.....and also hope, forgiveness, retrospection, and growth.
I appreciated the candor, the honesty, the titles--some made me chuckle. Tantillo gives us whimsy with some title names, like "The Grasshopper Sings to the Sleeping Fool" and "They Said to Plow but the Snow is Deep and I'm Unable to Keep Up," but both poems pack a punch to the gut with emotion and vulnerability.
I do enjoy modern poetry, and I very much enjoy with the formatting of a poem(s) goes outside the norm--not always left to right, or top to bottom.
Tantillo uses formatting in several poems of this collection to keep our attention and accentuate a word/phrase/point or a feeling....the letters in the word "descending," where each letter is separated by several spaces and they appear to be "falling" over several lines, for example.
I also appreciated the many styles of poems in this collection: rhyming, free verse, sonnet-esque, some haiku, and longer poems that are mini-short (ha) stories.
I feel like we see both a younger version of the author/poet at times, moreso in the earlier poems....and then we see the older, wiser author/poet, as if they are looking back and reflecting on their life or events or relationships. The separation of the poems in two parts: Sprain (Part One) and Crack (Part Two) also seems to group feelings and emotions or ideas in the poems together. Maybe this is a progression we should be anticipating? Sprain-->Crack-->Break(???)
Some standouts in this volume for me:
"Why I Prefer to Walk Alone"
"Hyper-Focusing to Distract from Looking Inward"
"Tick" (the formatting)
"Why I Hate Scales"
"Necrophilia"
Highly recommend this volume, and the upcoming Volumes 2 and 3 later this year (July 15, Volume 2 and September 2, Volume 3).
Well-worth the read and you'll very likely see yourself--whether that's a "current you" or a "younger you" that you recognize in these poems.
Hoping we all heal and grow and learn.
Thanks for sharing your poetry with us Chris!