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Arabilis
Arabilis integrates the ordeal of othering into the fundamental uncertainty of life to produce a collection that is honest in its pain, confusion, and joy. Beautiful and desolate as a rural upbringing, these poems delve into the complex relationship between the self and the indifferent world it inhabits. In this cogent work, the lonely thrill of existence is characterized by gunpowder, bone, and Bud Light empties. Presented through the perspective of a person of color adopted into a white family, this collection simultaneously acknowledges the senselessness of life and demands an explanation for it. Silvieus' poems advance through the changing of the seasons, paralleling the introspective nature of youth and adulthood alike through an examination of faith, nature, and memory. Sacrilegious discourse is converted to sacred invocations as this collection examines the viscera of life and loss. Belying each poem is a tenacious grasping for answers to questions impossible to express, validating the intuition that though we turn to God, Earth, or another person, we may never receive a fulfilling reply. In the face of this apparent helplessness, these poems continue to stumble in the dark, reaching with the God-want of their hands, relentless in their search for that which might finally reach back.
- GenresPoetry
80 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2019
24 people want to read
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January 11, 2023"Here, tangerines like paper lanterns
wait for night to rob their glow.
Oil on the canal as if from a dreamer,
beneath. Here, let us claw
match and flint; let us ask with fire
what the water has forgotten."
A while ago, I took a Kundiman class with Leah Silvieus specifically for adoptees. I remember us talking about anger and rage, which for many adoptees feel like a second (or third) home. "Self-Portrait as Secret-Heart-of-Gold Boy" was for me, finally, seeing that rage put into words.
All the nature imagery! The animals, the blood, the death, the rebirth! The grief, the faith, the "I dare you"! I really liked this collection and admire the way she writes about adoption without needing to be like "btw this is about adoption, I am an adoptee." I feel like I spend half my time trying to explain myself in poems, when maybe what I need to do is explore new ways around it.
Favorites:
- Self-Portrait as Secret-Heart-of-Gold Boy (!!)
- On the Feast of Epiphany
- Nocturne with Seven Isles (!!)
"Months tide shores of unanswered letters;
I write you as if you were dead."
wait for night to rob their glow.
Oil on the canal as if from a dreamer,
beneath. Here, let us claw
match and flint; let us ask with fire
what the water has forgotten."
A while ago, I took a Kundiman class with Leah Silvieus specifically for adoptees. I remember us talking about anger and rage, which for many adoptees feel like a second (or third) home. "Self-Portrait as Secret-Heart-of-Gold Boy" was for me, finally, seeing that rage put into words.
All the nature imagery! The animals, the blood, the death, the rebirth! The grief, the faith, the "I dare you"! I really liked this collection and admire the way she writes about adoption without needing to be like "btw this is about adoption, I am an adoptee." I feel like I spend half my time trying to explain myself in poems, when maybe what I need to do is explore new ways around it.
Favorites:
- Self-Portrait as Secret-Heart-of-Gold Boy (!!)
- On the Feast of Epiphany
- Nocturne with Seven Isles (!!)
"Months tide shores of unanswered letters;
I write you as if you were dead."
Displaying 1 of 1 review