Call Us What We Carry

Call Us What We Carry Poems By Amanda Gorman

Viking

An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

New York

2021

ISBN 978-0-593-46506-6 (Hardcover)

211 pages

16 pages notes & gratitude

When this book became available, I ran to get it. This is a poetry collection by a poetess named Amanda Gorman. I am as riveted and completely blown away by this book as I was when I laid eyes on her for the first time at the 2021 presidential inauguration. There Amanda Gorman poured her soul upon anyone within earshot, as she so eloquently presented us with the poem “The Hill We Climb”. She left us breathless and with chest heaving asking for more.

Here in this book, Call Us What We Carry, again she leaves the reader asking for more but giving us collective feelings of sorrow, grief, and yet full of love and of healing. She writes us to heal. Ms. Gorman shares with us our history and a chance to feel faith and atonement, all the while embracing the memorial of a place in time.

I felt the grit and angst and I’m feeling as a reader/reviewer, that we are witnessing, at least for me, the glory of the written word; the poetic stylings of a beating heart.

This collection of poetry is about all of us. It is about our history. It is about where we have come from, it is about where we have gone and finally, it is about where we are going as a nation and as a people.

In her Faith & Fury Chapter, I’d like to point out that she gives us lines and bits & quips that fill her and us with the love of country and humanity…like

…Language matters… grief gives us gratitude…black lives are worth living; worth defending, she calls these a smart prank then there’s …scars & stripes… Benevolent but bold… and finally, fierce & free… With these parts of lines in the poetry I pulled out she lays our collective hearts on the line. Ms. Gorman continues to pull us

On page 161 “The Truth in One Nation”

…”a nation’s cold pride will kill

choke us on the very spot we shadow

this is also called Chauvin[ism]

In her Resolution Chapter on pages 203 & 204 Gorman solidifies “What We Carry”

…words matter, for

Language is an ark.

Yes.

Language is an art.

An articulate artifiact.

Language is a life craft.

Yes.

Language is a life raft.

Further on page 207 in “The Hill We Climb”

… We lay down our arms

so that we can reach our arms out to one another

We seek harm to none and harmony for all.

Lastly, I felt she’s now walked us (the reader) into the healing process after showing us our visceral, intense personalities for on page 211 she brings us…

…the new dawn blooms as we free it

for there is always light,

If only we’re brave enough to see it

If we were brave enough to be it.

I think as readers and of poetry lovers, we feel immense pride to have this newly established poetess/writer in our community. She will give strength, hope, and resolve to those that read and witness this moment in time.

I highly recommend this book and the works of Amanda Gorman. This book is 5 ***** stars.

Amanda Gorman is a true wordsmith, she is a Harvard University cum laude graduate. She is the first person to be named a National Youth Poet Laureate, has written for the New York Times, she has numerous prestigious awards and appearances including attendance at the Obama White House, and Poets & Writers and Barnes & Noble writing awards. She currently has three upcoming books with Penguin Random House.

I can’t wait for more of Amanda Gorman.

Tears of Change

Poems, Reflections, and Quotes for a Meanigful Life

Review

Tears of Change

Poems, Reflections & Quotes For a Meaningful Life

By Debbie A. Monteggia

2020

Christian Faith Publishing Inc.

Meadville, PA 16335

64 pages paperback

ISBN 978-1-0980-1176-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-1178-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-0980-1177-2 (digital)

This is a book of poetry, and it is divided into 16 inspirational pieces of a spiritual and emotional journey the author Debbie A. Monteggia take us, the reader, on.

As the author opens in her introduction, she states that poetry is an expressive and creative form of awareness within oneself. Poetry is also a very healing venture. For those who need to write it and a true experience for those who deepen their souls by reading it. Here the author MS Monteggia truly traces a spiritual journey by channeling her feelings, even those of the unhappy times, as she charges forward with honesty, self-awareness, and heartfelt awakening.

Each poem is preceded by an inspiration that brought forth the stanzas of tears, hope and laughter. This enables the reader to further understand more about the chosen poetic steps through life that the author is enduring. Scattered among these are also simplistic quotes by notable people to further enhance her transitions.

Being venerable makes emotional pieces resonate with a reader and we feel this many times,

for example from the poem on page 15 Honor Your Tears…

…”with each new teardrop shed

A small door within, opens ever so slightly

Emotions connect your soul.”

And with the continued guidance of her faith, MS Monteggia was brought to a happy new place, she called, “rebirth” and has published this gift of her true heart with each of us.

I am hoping that MS Monteggia will continue to write poetry and deepen still her discoveries of life’s different stages, and I am hoping that she’ll continue to share them all with us.

4.5 Stars.

Thank you to @Books_That_Make_You

@Blackchateau @Bookstagrammers @BreeSwider and

Christan Faith Publishing for supplying me with this book complementary for review purposes.

Poems for Life A Special Collection of Poetry

Poems For Life A Special Collection of Poetry Selected by E.L. Doctorow. Allen Ginsberg. David Mamet. Tom Wolf. Joyce Carol Oates. Stephen Soundheim. Kurt Vonnegut. Elie Wiesal. And many more.

With a special introduction by Anna Quindlen.

Arcade Publishing

is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

New York

1995

The Nightengale-BamfordSchool

ISBN 978-1-61145-350-8

Well, this was a wonderful for book for so many reasons. The Number 1 reason of course is poetry, and the number 2 reason it was great because of who contributed a piece for this book, and thirdly it involved children hungry for art and entertained by having meaningful literature in their lives!

This book comes as a project for a 5th-grade class at the Nightengale-Bamford School. Poetry is part of the curriculum there (also another great thing). This project took two years to complete. The students wrote to people in many fields, such as actors, authors, and politicians. The students asked of this chosen person to submit their personal favorite piece of poetry. The second part of the question was why? Why did they like it and why did they find the passage a meaningful one.

The children and teachers found it utmost entertaining as the students received their piece and then gleefully read it outloud to the class. Then the students had to learn about that particular poem/poet.

The second layer of the project is that the students from class V (from 1993 and 1994) compilled all the poetry into a collection for this book. The goodness continues; then the teachers and the student sold the book and chose to donate ALL the proceeds from the book to benefit the International Rescue Comittee, and to benefit a division within the group called the Women’s Comission for Refugee women and Children. The spirit of social service is also part of this 5th-grade cirriculum. (great again!).

Each of the senders submitted a beautiful note with their pieces to each student.

Joyce Carol Oats submitted a very profound bit of wisdom, as she shared

Emily Dickinson here;

“Tell all the truth, but tell it slant~ success in circuit lies

to bright for our infirm delight, the truth’s suburb surprise.”

“As lightning to the children eased with explanation kind, the truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind”.

This was a fantastic project by thoughtful teachers and to teach this into the 5th-grade spirit makes a truly 5 ***** star book. It is something these children will never forget and I’m hoping they’ll all grow up with a deep love for poetry and literature.

Wordmotifs…And Waterlines By Bev Flynn

Wordmotifs…And Waterlines

By Bev Flynn

2017

Lexington, KY

ISBN 13:978-1547077496

Softcover 166 pages

Poetry and Photography

This is the poetesses third work of poetry and in this book Ms. Flynn embraces her words with beautiful photography.

Ms. Flynn has an eye for the beauty of nature and her love of being out in it as her words embrace each and every photo. The landscapes of this creative can be seen immediately as she catches the sky, the sea, and the strength of trees and then deftly hugs them with her words.

Her perspectives show depth and sheer love of her surroundings. Ms. Flynn takes us on a trek into nature as we examine our souls with her journey connection. She joins together her talents and soothes us as we bear witness to our soul landscapes as well.

Her words color in…

  She wakes his soul in water whisper

  quickened…in the blue.

  Risen shadows, cast…an untamed fate

  poetic latitude.

For me the poetess and those who love poetry her words satisfy greatly and deepen our love for songful lyrics in:

  Oracles, that drip…to pages

  softly sates, my only need.

  Poetry, from scriven clouds

  became Enough…for me

For me the reader, it was a pleasure reading her book and it is truly a bonus to view the creative photographs in this poetic collection endeavor.

Ms. Flynn is a huge talent. My review is five stars for both the poetry and the creative use of the photography.***** This book is part of Mary Caliendo’s private book collection.

Ms. Flynn’s other works of poetry are:

Pieces of Poet, and Inner Identity…Of Poet

She has both words and photo collaborations with Indie publications  Light Lines and This Time Around-Quest.

You can find her works at

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36334948-wordmotifs-and-waterlines?ac=1&from_search=true

https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=bev+flynn&type=

She can be reached at

https://www.bevflynnpoetry.com

BevFlynnAuthor    (Facebook)

@BevFlynn0331 (Twitter & Instagram)

Pillow Thoughts Courtney Peppernell

Pillow Thoughts By Courtney Peppernell
Poetry
ISBN 978-1-4494-8975-5
Andrews McMeel Publishers, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal
2017
256 pages
This collection of poetry is geared toward a younger generation and focuses on relationships. It was heartfelt and was a genuine look at love and sometimes the imperfections of a relationship. It read easy and flowed well, but felt somewhat cliché at times. The book was broken down into ten “thought chapters” each one representing parts of a relationship, for example lonely, sad and reason to stay.
Under her Thought Chapter …If you are heartbroken
“Sometimes I wonder
out of all the goodbyes
you’ve ever said
If mine was the one
you can’t get out
of your head.”
Ms. Peppernell has become a Pinterest user’s dream, with many users pinning her writing for their inspiration.
Courtney Peppernell is an LGBTQ author and launched her poetry after first self-publishing her very popular novel Paper Cranes in 2015. Pillow Thoughts came out in 2016 and launched her into the bestselling category. She has a huge presence on social media and even garnered notice from the band The Chainsmokers, who left a blurb on her book saying that they believe in poetry because it plays a great role with song writers.
This book had several illustrations by Ryan Gerber
You can follow Ms. Peppernell on Twitter @CourtPeppernell at Instagram @itsonlyforever and any questions or comments can be directed to Courtney@pepperbooks.org
*This book is part of Mary Caliendo personal library.

I Can’t Tell You By Neithan Levi

I Can’t Tell You Prose and Poetry
By Neithan Levi

ISBN 978 153 808 0917

Self-Published 2018 Neithan Levi USA

112 pages 89 prose/poetry/quips 9 Illustrations

Mr. Levi has divided his book into three sections. This book is about the trials and tribulations of young love.

“We’re all teenagers when it comes to love.”

As the reader starts to delve into Mr. Levi’s book, we can all relate in some way or another about the falling into love and the getting up after it’s over part; perhaps this is the hardest part and this is exactly where the poetry disseminates from. We have all been affected to all of the whiles that love offers.

Mr. Levi takes us through his Stirrings section where his words reflect the feeling of love and the sheer recognition of it.

…”we feel them in the pit of our stomachs, and where we lose track of ourselves and time.”

His second poem under Stirrings, the last line says it all concerning Love and being in it…

“It didn’t matter whether it was sunset or sunrise anymore.”

We can recount the way we personally relate to the Stirrings of love, when we just didn’t care if it was sunrise or even what day it was!

The reader can watch as Mr. Levi begins to grow as he writes his poems. They become deeper and more complex, just as love itself does. In the section of Heartbreak & Heartache, he begins to exhibit patience in his words, he shows here that time is literally relative, and that it can be cruel and that no one has any control over it.

In the last section of the book called Feel Again. Begin Again, He writes his most self -reflective poetry. He writes to a future lover…

…”Rather, the numbness of my viscera has at lost began to defrost.”
And
“We’re flawed but make the clock turn”…

Mr. Levi senses love by seeing his roads of poetry converge as he continues to grow in his writing.

Mr. Levi is currently working on an untitled chapbook as well a collection of short stories. I personally cannot wait for the future poetry of Neithan Levi.

This writer is one who exhibits true heart and feeling in his words, and is not afraid to be truthful in the parts that deeply affect his heart.
He can be found on Instagram with a wide following under the handle @byneithanlevi

This book can be purchased at Barnes & Noble

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-cant-tell-you-neithan-levi/1128829716?ean=9781538080917
Mike Ramirez (Illustrator) @mitch_grn
@radpresspublishing (Cover Art)

*This book was given to me for a fair and true review, it is now part of my personal library.

I Am A Woman Not A Winston

ISBN 9780692929797
Self Published
Lexington, KY
11/16/17

Poetry and Photography
54 poems and 54 photos collection

This is C. Churchill’s debut collection of poetry and photography. The 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 square book is a great look into the heart and the talent of Cheryl Churchill. This should be a main staple on your coffee table.

C. Churchill has long been a poet of some elevation within the Instagram Community. She has assembled quite a following as she hosts many poetry exclusive #hashtag events, while building a true friendship with many a budding poet and emerging creative. Her words in concert with her photography are stunning. All of her photos coming from the heart of her beloved woods in her native Michigan and the words of the heart of an artist poured into her pages.

“I lay motionless
Wetted by fresh dewed grass
my heart lay beside me
I listen for the trees.”

Ms. Churchill is a survivor, a visionary, a dreamer and lover, and now photo poet, who will always chase the sun.
You can find her on Facebook at facebook.com/cchurchillwrites and on Instagram @c.c_writes

This book is available through Amazon.com

I highly recommend this book. 5 stars

* This book is part of my personal library and I am not being rembursed for this review.

There’s Poetry in Your TBR

Do you have a TBR?  Most people who read books regularly do have one, and people who review also have one (err…many)!  Some people have made nice end tables out of their TBR piles, and I have seen contests run time and again about the contents of a TBR pile and what it says about the reader. *everyone is now looking at their stash! If you have one singular type of book or genre, perhaps you may want to read a bit more widely or perhaps your life mirrors those in that pile or they’re a stack of self-help books; this may just save you on the shrink bills, but eventually, you need to crack one open!

My TBR gnaws at me. Sometimes they holler at me glaringly “you’ll never read us all”! Just kidding I really don’t hear books talking to me (just yet). But while I’m sitting around cheating on my TBR with other books, I glance their way and I see poetry! Spine poetry, here’s an example of the poetry I found today:

She came from Dope To Hope, But was still The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo

She consulted her Book Of Speculation while pondering The River At night

but all she could hear was The Woman In Cabin 10 who just became one of

the Sad Girls~

Your turn to post your TBR and Spine Poetry, tag me if you will but enjoy your the day with your Bookies!

 

My TBR pile reference:

From Dope To Hope  (A Man In Recovery) by Tim Ryan

The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

The Book of Speculation by Ericka Swyler

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Sad Girls by Lang Leav

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterland Poems by Mai Der Vang Review

Afterland   Poems by Mai Der Vang

Gray Wolf Press

Minneapolis, Minnesota

2017

IBSN 978-1-55597-770-2

 

This poetry collection comes as the winner of The Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets as selected by Carolyn Forche’. MS Forche’ describes this book of poetry as having “deep attention, prismatic intelligence, and fearless truth.

MS Mai Der Vang treats us to the deep heartfelt imagery of the Hmong people and its ravage of war. Her poems speak of loss and mourning of her ancestors. She brings the reader the painful tribulations of Laos and of refugees. She uses her words to sharpen our senses as she brings to light their plight.

In the first poem of the book,  Another Heaven, the opening line  “I am but atoms  of old passengers” tell us she is speaking of relatives that have gone before her. She goes on

“Baskets fatigue, No envelope with oxygen left to cure” “When funeral recites the supper of our forefathers, cross-stitch from my mother kin, then I will come to you”.

Many parts of her poetry are scathing, to say the least as in

Dear Soldier of the Secret War Laos 1975

“Now they’ve ended the war. The American has gone home.” “Do you think  of your missing wife how the Pathet Lao dragged her naked, screaming, and bleeding by her long black hair, deep in forest shadows.”

But we find flowing colors and soft words such as these in the poem  To the Longhorn Hmong

“a scaffold ascends,

The perfumed winter

where frost has hewn you into azalea”.

and in many other passages and again here in the poem Lima Site 20

“Tell the evergreen’s heir,

the calyx creatures who give their acoustics to morning”.

Her poems left me feeling slightly saddened as her art pulls at my heart strings, while it reminds us of this piece of history oft forgotten.

Mai Der Vang is a contemporary poetess for our new generations and I eagerly await her next collection of poetry.

Isolato Poems By Larissa Szporluk

Isolato Poems

By Larissa Szporluk

University of Iowa Press, Iowa City

2000

IBSN 0-87745-704-2

556 pages  Divided by 5 parts 34 poems

 

Metaphoric brilliance in short lyric poems. Her feminity shows through with nature and wildlife as always a backdrop. From her very first words , we immediately search deeper inside ourselves. We look for deeper meanings. And quite possibly we look for even our own life meanings.

In her poem entitled  Doppelangia, we read…

…conjecture. I am the one not shown, not pictured, not missed….

…Thought I had a stake,

Didn’t know me.

Right there, in that poem alone readers will seek out their own lives relationships and perhaps one will fit into the mold of wanting to be seen or to be heard or to leave and no one, not one person missed you as you were gone.  It will hit us right in the human nature of our souls.

Her poems resonate with the general poetry reader as well as the advanced reader as we can envision ourselves in the lines written that we may in fact not know ourselves as we once thought we did.

MS Szporluk compilation was put together by the University of Iowa Press and we’re sure glad they did. An awesome work of poetry, I highly recommend this read.