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Once-and-for-all
To calm, even transform
This inner turmoil of
What-Have-I-Done."
In this slim, powerful collection, dream-like fragments blend with violent snippets from a speaker’s brutal past. Readers embark on a journey of abuse, self-doubt, vulnerability, and healing. The collection begins during the speaker’s traumatic childhood, during which they endured sexual abuse. It transcends into the speaker’s anger-ridden adolescent years and eventually into the speaker’s adulthood, during which the speaker has learned to accept the past and move forward. Poems like “Last Year” embrace the catharsis the arts and poetry writing can provide abuse survivors. Others like “The Overwhelming Understanding” mix the panic of awareness with a tone of determination that fuels the collection.
Despite the pain and heartache permeating these poems, a voice of perseverance and an unquenchable will to survive emerges from each verse. The brevity of each poem creates an emotional impact that stays with readers long after they have finished the poems. The poems’ brevity also parallels the concept of passing time in the collection. Complementing the English translations of the poems are the original Hebrew versions. This inclusion is unique and necessary, especially as more and more dual-language poetry editions emerge from publishers. Also unique to the collection is the poems’ speaker-chorus construction. This construction creates a before-and-after effect inherent in each poem, creating a duality that mimics the speaker’s confusion and heartbreak. The authentic voice and minimalist forms in this collection will remind readers of poems by poets like Yrsa Daley-Ward. It is a collection that long-time poetry readers and newcomers to the genre can equally appreciate.