Poetry Spotlight

"The Vilomah Said" by Jazz Sexton

A very short poem published in inkscrawl.  Read it here.

A.M. Sartor, In the Company of Wolves, website

Poetry Spotlight

"No later than tomorrow" by Jan Harris

This poem is from the online publication Bolts of Silk.  It is about loss, the inevitability of loss, and the sleeping-seed of potential--hope--that loss is never without.

Kris Waldherr

I think the less I say about this one, the better.  Enjoy.

Poetry Spotlight

"The Mermaid Loses Her Voice" by Jeannine Hall Gailey

I haven't done one of these in a while; it's long overdue.

Today I want to share "The Mermaid Loses Her Voice," written in the point-of-view of Anderson's little mermaid.  It's featured on Rose Red Review.  With the first line, this poem lulls and gains listener interest in a down-to-earth, conversational tone.

I don’t know what they told you, but it wasn’t for love.
I was the disobedient daughter, the one who couldn’t                 bear
a life on the waves.  I wanted to be something new.

I am reminded of "The Mermaid Sets the Story Straight" by Debra Cash.  The titles of both poems give the mermaid an action and prepare the reader to hear the narrative in the mermaid's voice.  But they are quite different in what they accomplish.  

Jeff Simpson, The Little Mermaid, source

While Ms. Cash's poem is, well--aggressive, subversive  berating?--in accord with the connotations a phrase like "setting the story straight" conjures, Ms. Gailey's title is more passive.  Her mermaid loses something.  

We know the story goes that she loses her capability for speech, but Mrs. Gailey's mermaid is given a voice in this poem, regardless of title.  What, then, has the little mermaid lost?  I think it is something less obvious than vocal cords.

"The prince was merely an interlude," she says.  "I was lonely."

Men loved me for my body, so unavailable,                                     unassailable….
they tried to catch me in nets.  Now I’m one more
long-haired lass in low-cut jeans in a tavern, listening to           them
boast about conquering the sea.  But I am the sea.

I sense a heroine who once had been Ms. Cash's, now reflecting in the wisdom of experience.  She left the sea, but she was the sea; she "was tired of mystery," but the sea was her voice.  How can she escape?  And why did she ever want to?

The word "inevitable" in the last line is final as a bell-toll.  Do read the poem in its entirety.

If it is possible to say one poem is better than another (and I'm not so sure it is), I wouldn't be fit to say it.  But I think it should be obvious which one of these I prefer.

Poetry Spotlight

Joshua Davis

This poem is by a friend of mine and is published in The Sandhill Review vol. 12.  I had to share some of it.  It is titled "Beauty," written by Josh Davis.

She asked for honey,
clover honey deep in the mouths of snow.
The prince kept bees.  The merchant took

comb after comb until the prince
stood on the parapet, throat full of thorns.

I like how he makes the familiar story his own.  Beauty wants honey, not a rose.  "Mouths of snow" is arresting in its simplicity.  The prince is angry, "throat full of thorns."

It goes on

She ate the honey, vowed to go
live with the prince among fountains and books,
blue-lit votives, gilded birds, statues that dance

when the moon hooks the night.  The prince
never strayed into the morning.  They dined

by dim tapers and laughed to soften the quiet.

Fountains and books don't sound too bad to me.  (I think that's the point.)

I love "when the moon hooks the night."  You know, when it's shaped like scythe and rises early, dragging the night sky with it.  Three little words make such an impression.

John Dickson Batten, Beauty and the Beast

You can read the rest of it by requesting a copy of the literary magazine at sandhillreview@gmail.com.

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