The Caribbean Writer reviews Prophets of the Morning Light

The Carribean Writer a literary journal published annually by the University of the Virgin Islands recently reviewed our title Prophets of the Morning LIght by Patricia Harkins-Pierre.

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Observations on Morning Light
Patricia Harkins-Pierre, Prophets of Morning Light. Mobile, Alabama: Negative Capability Press, 2014. Trade Paperback: 73 pages.

The title of Patricia Harkins Pierre’s new poetry collection, Prophets of Morning Light, presents balanced observations of life and death, love and loss, as well as family, friends, well known personalities, society in general, and the natural environment.

The opening poem, “Church in Brittany,” presents impressions of two idealistic newly weds who walk “the cliffs/on their honeymoon,” under the church wall covered with a “faded fresco”(3), that seems to foreshadow failure. The theme of frustrated romantic relationships is further explored in the poem, “Honeymoon,” where a lover’s letter arrives from Saigon bearing unwelcomed news. Accordingly, the nervous narrator complains that the unopened letter sent by her lover feels “cold …and thin”(9).

Some poems share witty perceptions of controversial political personalities. In the poem, “Sisters in Spirit,” an association is made between two former Prime Ministers, Indira Ghandi of India, and Margaret Thatcher of Britain. These two highly visible leaders run the risk of assassination because of their radical social and economic policies. Another media celebrity, Imelda Marcos, having grown widely unpopular, harbors fantasies of disappearing from public life, in the poem, “Imelda Becomes Invisible “(32).

From reading these poems, the reader will conclude that the author is a nature lover. The lush, tropical scenery of Caribbean life seems to inspire many of the poems in the collection. The title poem, “Prophets of Morning Light”(66), celebrates the wide-winged pelicans that populate the St. Thomas harbor at dawn. Other interesting poems that celebrate tropical animals, fauna and flora include: “Wanda Under the Angel Tree” (67), “Tigers in Paradise” (37), “Christmas in Paradise “(72), “Zebralight “(36), and “Love Feast: An Island Ode” (64).

The poet also pays tribute to the former noted Caribbean-American poet and colleague, Audre Lorde, in the poems, “Telling the Truth About Audre“(40), and “Sweet Flesh, Sharp Bones” (41). In another poem, “Requiem for Gene” (53), homage is paid to former University of the Virgin Islands colleague, the late Gene Emanuel.

The poems, “Grand Mother’s Saints” (17-18), “Death by Fire” (19-20), “Driving Lesson” (21), and “Grandmother’s Stockbridge” celebrate the lives to beloved family relations.
The poems are carefully crafted; the language is lively and energetic. I had fun reading these poems.

Vincent O. Cooper
University of the Virgin Islands
 

Alabama Writers' Forum Reviews The Uniform House→

Recent Negative Capability Press release The Uniform House by Jim Murphy is featured on the Alabama Writers' Forum website in a review by Jennifer Horne.

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“The poems of The Uniform House engage on first reading and reward rereading.”

"University of Montevallo English professor Jim Murphy’s third collection of poetry takes its title from the first poem in the book, “The Uniform House of Dixie,” which sounds like a Walker Evans photograph and presents images congruent with Evans’ work…" Read the full text here.

Paul Baumann Reviews L. Kiernan's Two Faint Lines In The Violet

Paul Baumann Reviews Lissa Kiernan’s Two Faint Lines in the Violet

Do you happen to know Faulkner's speech, on the occasion of his acceptance of the Nobel Prize? It comes to mind, as he apparently had to work a bit against the perception that his work created a pessimistic attitude.  It’s a horror, to say the least, to look back, with Faulkner, to the Civil War, and to contemplate the current situation, in which his metaphors seem all the more stridently realized, "the only question now is when will I be blown up?". Nothing different has emerged from the ground that Faulkner depicted with a musical vividness.  

Lissa Kiernan's book, Two Faint Lines in the Violet (Negative Capability Press, 2014), has the same fierce determination not to flinch, and the same sense of wonder, the same idea of what a poet's job is:  Not to avoid reality, but to take up the most abject along with the most lulling, and to make something that stays wonderful from the materials of experience. We need to see these images of ourselves blown up, just as we need to have new, beautiful songs.

It’s been some weeks since I read it now, but its rich atmosphere along with its palpable embedments continue to resonate, being mixed now with the amazement of Absalom, Absalom, which I am now reading for the first time.

--Paul Baumann, multimedia artist 
http://paulbaumannart.com/