This is the second of two books I picked up from the library where the poetry is themed around a single subject, in this case the break-up with and past relationship with a partner.
Reading Emily Skaja's poetry is something one should do with quiet concentration as she packs a lot of meaning into a stanza and even into a line. Her wording is sometimes riddle-like and hard to follow but after some time, I started to get the rhythm of her poetry. The following 1/4 of a poem is the first poem of the book and the title of the first section/chapter of poems:
MY HISTORY AS In my history, I was bones eating paper or I was paper eating bones. Semantics.
I lived in a narrow house; I lived with a man who said
You fucked up your own life,who said I could never love someone so heavy.
The place was brick on brick with iron gates covering the windows --
rowhouse cage. South Philly. I was learning how some of us are made to be carrion birds
& some of us are made to be circled. Somewhere in this education
I stopped eating. Held up my hands to see if my bones would glow in the dark.
```
I particularly like the lines, "I was learning how some of us are made to be carrion birds
& some of us are made to be circled."
Emily Skaja is unrelenting in what sounds like well-deserved criticism of her now ex-partner. He seems to have been just a bit of an asshole.
I again found myself liking this book of poetry more than I would have expected given that it has a single theme, however, I deducted a star simply because it is so one-note and so unabashedly negative. Poem after poem was this way and after a while I needed some relief.
I don't, however, want to end on a negative note here myself. Emily Skaja's poetry is well-crafted and engaging and I liked many of her lines and individual poems in this book. A definite recommend.
Reading Emily Skaja's poetry is something one should do with quiet concentration as she packs a lot of meaning into a stanza and even into a line. Her wording is sometimes riddle-like and hard to follow but after some time, I started to get the rhythm of her poetry. The following 1/4 of a poem is the first poem of the book and the title of the first section/chapter of poems:
MY HISTORY AS
In my history, I was bones eating paper
or I was paper eating bones. Semantics.
I lived in a narrow house;
I lived with a man who said
You fucked up your own life,who said
I could never love someone so heavy.
The place was brick on brick
with iron gates covering the windows --
rowhouse cage. South Philly. I was learning
how some of us are made to be carrion birds
& some of us are made to be circled.
Somewhere in this education
I stopped eating. Held up my hands
to see if my bones would glow in the dark.
```
I particularly like the lines, "I was learning
how some of us are made to be carrion birds
& some of us are made to be circled."
Emily Skaja is unrelenting in what sounds like well-deserved criticism of her now ex-partner. He seems to have been just a bit of an asshole.
I again found myself liking this book of poetry more than I would have expected given that it has a single theme, however, I deducted a star simply because it is so one-note and so unabashedly negative. Poem after poem was this way and after a while I needed some relief.
I don't, however, want to end on a negative note here myself. Emily Skaja's poetry is well-crafted and engaging and I liked many of her lines and individual poems in this book. A definite recommend.