Quiet Mountain Essays
| Copyright © 2010 |
| Turning Inside Out poetry by Sandra Kolankiewicz Black Lawrence Press, $9; available: Black Lawrence Press, Amazon, etc. |
I enjoy reading poems in which I feel placed at the scene, a perch from where I can watch the action
unfolding. In the poems in Turning Inside Out, the 2009 winner of the Black River Chapbook
Competition, Ms. Kolankiewicz invites the reader into every scene - but readers, step if you dare. It's
not always pretty. However, to Kolankiewicz's credit, each scene the reader steps into feels genuine,
and honestly written. These poems are filled not only with information but with reflection.
In each offering of this slim volume, Kolankiewicz seems to take a big bite out of some past life. She
then mulls it over carefully, making a few judgements along the way. A reader has the feeling that
this author has lived many lives (or at least a few), and has survived them all, intact, to tell their tales.
These are earned offerings:
I would do if I could,
turn my eyes inward yet keep
that other half still
unknown to me, my constant companion,
just the distance of skin away,
but this time on the outside,
glistening into the dry air,
a steaming colander of
hot, red organs...
(from the poem, "Turning Inside Out," p. 38)
Kolankiewicz's chapbook, Turning Inside Out, is not a meal that was thrown together by a harried
hostess, but one in which each component was carefully chosen to showcase the breadth and depth
of what the chef has learned while practicing her craft. In this instance, one could say that the
showcased craft might be called Living Life.
unfolding. In the poems in Turning Inside Out, the 2009 winner of the Black River Chapbook
Competition, Ms. Kolankiewicz invites the reader into every scene - but readers, step if you dare. It's
not always pretty. However, to Kolankiewicz's credit, each scene the reader steps into feels genuine,
and honestly written. These poems are filled not only with information but with reflection.
In each offering of this slim volume, Kolankiewicz seems to take a big bite out of some past life. She
then mulls it over carefully, making a few judgements along the way. A reader has the feeling that
this author has lived many lives (or at least a few), and has survived them all, intact, to tell their tales.
These are earned offerings:
I would do if I could,
turn my eyes inward yet keep
that other half still
unknown to me, my constant companion,
just the distance of skin away,
but this time on the outside,
glistening into the dry air,
a steaming colander of
hot, red organs...
(from the poem, "Turning Inside Out," p. 38)
Kolankiewicz's chapbook, Turning Inside Out, is not a meal that was thrown together by a harried
hostess, but one in which each component was carefully chosen to showcase the breadth and depth
of what the chef has learned while practicing her craft. In this instance, one could say that the
showcased craft might be called Living Life.
| - review by Suzanne Sunshower |
