October 2023 MBR The Poetry Shelf

The Poetry Shelf

Beautiful Son
Ken Buhr
Garden Oak Press
www.gardenoakpress.com
9798987953228, $15.00

https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Son-Courage-Ken-Buhr/dp/B0CFCHZNWZ

Beautiful Son is a tribute collection of poems about and dedicated to Ken Buhr's 42-year-old son Gabe, written during the year when Gabe became seriously ill with cancer and died. The experience of helplessness, grief, and struggle mingles with the admiration and celebration Buhr feels towards his son and puts to paper, creating this tribute. From the first poem in the collection, the fits and starts of medical dilemma are juxtaposed with questions and anguish that bring son and father's experiences to life:

"This train we're on moves fast -
passing signs cannot be read.
We suffer flashes of who are we?
where are we? who is with us?
how far might we have to go?"

Another reason for writing (and reading) this kind of tribute, with its raw pain and experiences, is that it serves as a touch point for others who are on the same journey. As this 'anchor for the heart' unfolds, readers who are survivors (as well as those in the throes of a battle with cancer) receive enlightening, surprisingly hope and thought-provoking chronicles of the chaos and possibilities in a journey that manages to celebrate and acknowledge beauty even after life ends.

Libraries and readers seeking memorable, literary accounts of a year of cancer struggle and the aftermath of survival will find Beautiful Son a wrenchingly enlightening tribute.

Faster, Annihilators!
Travis Hupp
https://travishupp.com
Atmosphere Press
www.atmospherepress.com
9781639888924, $16.99

https://www.amazon.com/Faster-Annihilators-Travis-Hupp-ebook/dp/B0C8JZ2FF6

If its unusual title, Faster, Annihilators!, doesn't pique interest, the LGBTQ+ poetry will. Written over a period of some twenty-four years that follow Travis Hupp's evolution as a gay man from high school into adult circles, they provide enlightenment, humor, and social observation that moves beyond autobiographical reflection and well into the field of psychic awakening and struggles with social expectations and mores. Poetry readers can anticipate vivid pieces of interpersonal and life connections that are wide-ranging in nature, from a grief process involving a cat to gender identity and community involvements. Each poem chronicles survival tactics, both on a humanity-wide and a personal level: "We still debate/exactly what happened/as if the madness was alien to us/when in fact we were the madness..."

The microcosm/macrocosm juxtaposition of these works provides satisfyingly thought-provoking opportunities to reflect on cause, effect, and the impact of repression, yet undercurrents of hope permeate many of the pieces to add new possibilities to the forces of oppression and repression that evolve from inner and outer influences: "No clocks in this fortress/that protects the world/from my wounded heart/Once branded a criminal/time means nothing at all/You just get wrung out/trying to wash the stain off/Still I choose wild hope/in the face of creeping torture..." It's that "wild hope" that keeps these poems entering into realms of new possibilities and options. It's that sense of "turning the angry blue/of my latest bruise" into vigils of transformation that will attract readers into Hupp's life and the literary forces that permeate his exploration of his world and place in it.

Rarely does LGBRQ+ literature hold the ability to reach traditional readers, but this vivid piece extolling the challenges and possibilities of social change and personal transformation is clear in its message of hope and opportunity, which will reach a wider audience of poetry and social issues readers than the usual work. When rationale, social observation, and personal evolution collide, the result is powerful indeed. Libraries seeking poetry works that toe the line between memoir and social examination will find Faster, Annihilators! just the ticket for book clubs and readers exploring bigger-picture thinking about life trajectories, choices, and social influences.

Under Her Eye
Lindy Ryan and Lee Murray, Editors
Black Spot Books
c/o Vesuvian media
https://vesuvianmedia.com/black-spot-books
9781645481379, $14.95 Paper/$4.99 Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/Under-Her-Eye-Horror-Showcase/dp/1645481379

Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Showcase, Vol. II is a literary gathering of women's horror poetry writing. It complements the first volume and adds new insights about women who struggle with particular forms of horror that include abusive and dark situations at home and in society.

This wide-ranging definition of horror allows for an equally broad inspection of its identification and incarnation, creating a powerful anthology of horror and its concurrent antonym, hope. Vivid scenarios and strong emotions mark a literary prowess on the parts of each contributor to this anthology. This translates to a focus on physical and psychological incarnations of horror experiences, as well as the kinds of disparate responses that lead to survival. Just as there is no set definition of what constitutes horror, so there is no singular path towards mitigating its impact, as these pieces demonstrate. As for the works themselves, their complexity, diverse subjects and approaches, and strengths create a unified interpretation of horror that will both enlighten and intrigue readers on many levels.

Take 'Plain White Cotton Dresses' by Emma J. Gibbon, for one example. The seemingly mild title and the image it conjures are tempered by the tragedy that evolves as a town's women awaken to discover "When they woke up that morning in the mist and green,/in every yard, a plain white cotton dress./Hanging from a wire coat hanger on the tree, fence, on the washing line./Pure and white and cold/and on each dress, a small note pinned/a white square piece of notepaper./In formal handwriting, in gray-black ink,/two words:/Why not?" Why not, indeed? Their uniform response to this discovery turns a mild event into a form of rebellion readers won't see coming.

Each poem holds the power to provoke thoughtful, strong reactions from its readers. Each embraces the quiet, feral, or forceful reactions of women to horror in a different way. Another example of this diversity lies in Christina Ladd's 'Burn It Down': "I will drill holes in my own strong bones/To fill them with fire/I will pluck out my eyes/And set the sockets with flint/So that when I scrape my gaze/Over this place/It will catch./Do you know what twenty years of fear/Will do to a person?" No easy read, these poems of rebellion and agony - but, an essential one for survivors and women navigating their own life currents of horror. Ideally, Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Showcase, Vol. II will not only be included in women's literature and poetry libraries, but will be profiled for group discussion by book clubs, women's groups, and psychological circles focusing on abuse, empowerment, horror, and recovery. It's that important. (As an additional note, the Under Her Eye series represents charity showcase developed in partnership with The Pixel Project, a global non-profit organization focused on eliminating violence against women worldwide.)

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Midwest Book Review