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Pain Sections
This collection is a ferocious act of attention, the aim - to consider the natural landscape within and outside our bodies. Paul Ilechko’s world contains both whispered lovers dialogues, the subtle failings of muscle and bone, the sea and the shore. It is a striking collection of skillful purpose, of risk and candor.
43 pages, Paperback
Published January 4, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 25, 2022
There's definitely a Samuel Beckett vibe to this work, which is a rumination on mortality in stark verse. There seem to be three parts to the book. The first part comprises various juxtapositions of states of the body with those of the natural world and rustic places, almost as if imagined from a hospital bed. There is no sense of a distinct time, but you get the feeling it's all coming apart.
The middle section lightens the tone a bit, and the world becomes more concrete. Another presence makes itself known, there is a He and a She and there is a relationship, there is sex, and a yearning to merge, though it seems to break down again into bruises, leaking fluids and decay.
In the last section, the voice remains bisected, but the identities have blurred. The world gains focus to include works of art and contemplation of beauty, but also the pain of separation. The two voices are in dialogue about the meaning of it all. In the end they only find silence, that seems to be their means of escape and final resolution.
The middle section lightens the tone a bit, and the world becomes more concrete. Another presence makes itself known, there is a He and a She and there is a relationship, there is sex, and a yearning to merge, though it seems to break down again into bruises, leaking fluids and decay.
In the last section, the voice remains bisected, but the identities have blurred. The world gains focus to include works of art and contemplation of beauty, but also the pain of separation. The two voices are in dialogue about the meaning of it all. In the end they only find silence, that seems to be their means of escape and final resolution.
August 11, 2021
"Life exists beyond the scrim of migraine/ one said beyond the reality of well-lit/ diagonals
I seem to be failing to pass/ through this flickering boundary of/ image." Striking and inventive, "Pain Sections" is presented as a series of dialogs with oneself combining into a study of one's role in the world. A memorable poetry collection full of charged metaphors and odd, incomprehensible edges.
I seem to be failing to pass/ through this flickering boundary of/ image." Striking and inventive, "Pain Sections" is presented as a series of dialogs with oneself combining into a study of one's role in the world. A memorable poetry collection full of charged metaphors and odd, incomprehensible edges.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews