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Distilled Lives: Volume 6
Anthology of the Illinois State Poetry Society
Co-Editors: Wilda Morris and Susan T. Moss
62 Contributing Poets ~ 124 Poems ~ 114 pages
Price: $12.00
Publisher: Kindle Direct Publishing
ISBN: 9798370997181
To Order: Amazon.com
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas
Distilled Lives: Volume 6 is the latest in a series of superb anthologies assembled by the Illinois State Poetry Society and published by Kindle Direct Publishing. Poet Mary O. Monical has provided this writer with the perfect “hook” for the review which follows.
The last line of “Exit” hit me hard:
I want to go out like a light
bulb. Suddenly. Snap!
But before I do
I want to light up the world.
What are we about as poets? We desire, I should think, to light up the world. Poets and the things they do make a difference in people’s lives. This sentiment is not lost on co-editors Wilda Morris and Susan T. Moss. In the foreword, they write, “We strive to bring the written word into the world to help make it whole.”
Sixty-two poets contributed two poems each. There is something for everyone: classical forms, free verse, oriental forms, ekphrastic creations, seasonal poems, funny poems, and poems steeped in pathos.
Following are poems which serve as a sampling of the riches waiting to be mined:
Caroline Johnson’s golden shovel features end line words from Terrance Hayes:
Watching you in the garden, I
delight in your hands. I want
to take them and dance, to
measure each moment, open
and free like seeds. A
shadow from clouds, a door
to the sun, the wisdom of the
flowers and bees, please size
your heart so it equals the light of
day, so it expands the
way we reach the sky.
Each end word, when written as a complete sentence says, “I want to open a door the size of the sky.” I like Johnson’s easy dictional pace as well as her reference to light.
Arthur Voellinger delight’s readers with “Ouch Prevention”:
After suffering
a cut or bruise
children know
what to do
By showing
mom or grandma
where to kiss
And change
the hurt
into bliss
Only the best poets know how to capture the feelings and joys of childhood and, in so doing, “pinch” us adults out of a bad mood.
If you enjoy sonnets Curt Vevang’s “Rainbows Are Hard to Come By” is your ticket to the dance:
Too much rain spoils a fragile rainbow’s day,
and too much sun can make it go away.
We see that nature lives upon the cusp,
somewhere between too much and not enough.
Nature’s goodness shines in the day’s bright light,
while its evil face stalks the eerie night.
It brings earthly joys and wonders untold,
Yet allows angst and misery unfold.
The farmer’s fields soak up the gentle rain,
but floods and drought destroy the fledgling grain.
Sailors delight in nature’s potent breeze
until embroiled in ghastly typhoon seas.
Just as sunshine lights up the starry sky,
darkness of night doth bid the day goodbye.
Vevang’s poem showcases craftmanship of meter and rhyme. This skill is paired with keen powers of observation: nature and human nature frequently correspond. I enjoyed the mental exercise of applying this poem to my life.
No anthology would be complete without haiku. Barbara Robinette sent my imagination spinning with “Three Haiku”:
sitting by the pond
October twilight
the sound of grain bins
the scent of wild cherry blossoms all day
dog breath
the silence in this room
her cloudy eyes
In her poem, “What’s Really Going On,” Melissa Huff captures something special about poetry and the irreplaceable function poetry performs for us:
It only looks like nothing is happening–
my feet propped on the ottoman,
eyes gazing unfocused, abdomen rising,
falling, in smooth waves. I might read
a few lines, jot down a word or phrase.
Rest assured I am storing nutrients,
for somewhere within I am feeding
fragments of ideas, tending
new growth of dormant goals,
encouraging an underground river
to nurture embryonic imaginings,
so that in the coming spring
when this months-long chill
dissolves in warm rains,
when I shed winter’s wrappings,
when light–long held at bay–breaks loose,
I too will emerge with the buds–
A newness in me will flower.
Yes, a newness, a light for the world to see, a power, the heart of what matters in life. As Wallace Stevens has famously said, “We poets evoke in speech those harmonies that help us live our lives.”
Congratulations to co-editors Morris and Moss and to all the gifted contributors to Distilled Lives: Volume 6, Anthology of the Illinois State Poetry Society.
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