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All Violet
In All Violet, a young woman chronicles the experience of living on the margins, in spaces and places where body and mind are flayed by guilt, disappointments and betrayals. Her poems record the shattering trauma of struggling to survive through periods of doubt, fear, rage and pain, creating a narrative of disconnection, indignation, alienation and emptiness, the extremes of suffering and desperation.
Employing lyrical free verse, Rani Rivera has skillfully employed the short line to pinpoint moments of acute perception.
Unadorned, taut and precise cries of pain, loss and fury draw the reader deeper and deeper inside this in-your-face confrontation with a dark world of foreboding alleviated by flashes of mordant wit and grace under fire.
“A star student and sweet friend, Rani’s death hurts in a way only she could describe with beauty and grace: ‘I love them pretty/with their ugliness./I love them all violet/and blue.’
Her love for the world courses through this powerful collection like a clean, clear river, bathing and purifying the poison and the pain she delineates with a razor, her uncanny mind.
New to these poems, I wish her back to praise her, and instead, say goodbye again, knowing she has left behind a stunning legacy, one that will be returned to, again and again, by anyone who knows, to quote Theodore Roethke, ‘the purity of pure despair.’
And to anyone who knows that life is wreching and sublime, all at once: All night, she turned violet and blue, betrayed by the Earth’s roll into darkness, leaving behind fields of flowers, bigger than oceans, and kindness, and love.”
—Lynn Crosbie, writer, professor and author of The Corpses of the Future
Employing lyrical free verse, Rani Rivera has skillfully employed the short line to pinpoint moments of acute perception.
Unadorned, taut and precise cries of pain, loss and fury draw the reader deeper and deeper inside this in-your-face confrontation with a dark world of foreboding alleviated by flashes of mordant wit and grace under fire.
“A star student and sweet friend, Rani’s death hurts in a way only she could describe with beauty and grace: ‘I love them pretty/with their ugliness./I love them all violet/and blue.’
Her love for the world courses through this powerful collection like a clean, clear river, bathing and purifying the poison and the pain she delineates with a razor, her uncanny mind.
New to these poems, I wish her back to praise her, and instead, say goodbye again, knowing she has left behind a stunning legacy, one that will be returned to, again and again, by anyone who knows, to quote Theodore Roethke, ‘the purity of pure despair.’
And to anyone who knows that life is wreching and sublime, all at once: All night, she turned violet and blue, betrayed by the Earth’s roll into darkness, leaving behind fields of flowers, bigger than oceans, and kindness, and love.”
—Lynn Crosbie, writer, professor and author of The Corpses of the Future
88 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 23, 2018
WOW. What a stunning collection of poetry. Themes include fleeting moments of connection, bisexual dating & crushes, drug / alcohol use & addiction, music, depression, and the humanity of people dehumanized by society. Often sad, raw, but occasionally very funny, with beautiful unique imagery. This is a really amazing poetry collection and I wish more people knew about it. Let me convince you to read it: full review on my blog. Here's an excerpt from one of my favourites:
"I love them
broken and beaten badly,
pock-marked and toothless,
spent and riddled with rue.
I love them lying
with sleep in their eyes,
the sunlight curdling
in sweet bellies
heaving with an unrest of a few
too many.
I love them motherless
and taunted. Violent
and entitled.
I love them on fire. I love them on ice.
I love them hairy and unclean.
Hearts pierced and sagging.
I love them old. I love them new.
I love them mean.
I love them talking and talking.
I love them destructed and
pinned with little needles,
smokestacks of inconstancy.
Nailed to the wall and stuck on
with glue.
I love them dancing, dancing."
"I love them
broken and beaten badly,
pock-marked and toothless,
spent and riddled with rue.
I love them lying
with sleep in their eyes,
the sunlight curdling
in sweet bellies
heaving with an unrest of a few
too many.
I love them motherless
and taunted. Violent
and entitled.
I love them on fire. I love them on ice.
I love them hairy and unclean.
Hearts pierced and sagging.
I love them old. I love them new.
I love them mean.
I love them talking and talking.
I love them destructed and
pinned with little needles,
smokestacks of inconstancy.
Nailed to the wall and stuck on
with glue.
I love them dancing, dancing."
July 4, 2018
All Violet is a book I have a hard time appreciating or assessing without my personal biases coming into play. It touches on themes of a hard life, oppressions, mental illness, and drugs. Rivera bleeds pain onto these pages, and I think her truths will be quite affecting for some. Alas, it pushed too many buttons I would prefer remained unpressed, but that doesn't make it bad poetry. Just not poetry overly suited for me.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews