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are we cut free
from the hate that's killin' you
an killin' me?"
Diane Elliott’s When Volcanoes Wake, fittingly, surges with an explosion of chaos and energy, both in content and style. While it won’t be mistaken for the more tempered, but stylistically exquisite works of poetic greats, Elliott's poetry has a certain fire-breathing quality that is simultaneously calm and ominous in a Poe-esque way. This is best represented in the compilation’s namesake, “When Volcanoes Wake,” which captures the rush of passion and love.
Elliott’s poetry explores a range of topics, but the relationship with mom element tends to be consistent throughout. Poems like “Estranged,” “Bedtime,” and “Remembering Mama,” depict childhood innocence, but become distinctly grim, as innocence evolves into horror in “Hush Up And Hold Your Breath,” a poem that expertly uses imagery to illuminate the reader’s mind.
Elliott’s fearlessness and exploratory nature is on display in “Hush Up,” through her words. In later poems, like “Relativity,” seasoned poets will undoubtedly appreciate her experimental tendencies with structure. Throughout the poetry, playing with structure, like capitalizing and bolding the first letter of a new paragraph or stanza, has become a signature Diane Elliott trait.
Expect a healthy dose of typical figurative devices like personification, alliteration, similes, and metaphors. What will be seared into the audience’s mind, however, are the images accompanying each poem. Some are stunning scenic visuals, while others, like “Sometimes The Dark Finds Me,” are downright haunting.
In poems like “Aging,” “Farewell,” and “A Poem for Living,” Elliott switches into reflection mode, where a genuine calm replaces the unharnessed energy of earlier poems much the way age cools down the fieriest personalities.
In essence, When Volcanoes Wake is a creative way of depicting the natural progression of humanity. In style and verse, it is both electric and captivating, a different brand of poetry that has the potential to incite eruptions in the many dormant volcanos of the human mind.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review