Review of Stephanie Bryant Anderson's The Paper House

I came across Stephanie Bryant Anderson while seeking writers to read at my music and lit series, Stained Glass Confessional. Even though she isn't a New York City native (she lives in Tennessee), I had to invite her because I absolutely love her poetry. Her writing is raw, emotional, practiced, and beautiful. Every piece is a glimpse into her life and she writes in such an accessible and clear manner that you can't help but respect her ability to be that honest and that insightful. Depression, heartbreak, failed love affairs - Stephanie Bryant Anderson is the sort of young, post-Riot Grrl female poet that I aspire to be. In short, I absolutely loved this collection and recommend it to anyone who appreciates my favorite kind of confessional and emotional writing. You know who you are. With the Ani, Tori, Liz, Fiona, Alanis, PJ, Sarah, and Courtney on your ipod and perhaps a dogeared copy of Prozac Nation fading on your bookshelf. This woman knows that is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all - but also that in the moment when love leaves all bet's are off.

The poets that I love the best have lines that grab me and I find myself circling them madly with a pen wishing I had written them first! These are samples in The Paper House that I highlighted that really struck a cord with me (perhaps its just the romantic, melancholy, sullen girl inside me but I like them a lot):

I take the stones, tuck them like a child into earth's bed,
because I need to lie, as in a quiet tomb.
Everything here is quiet, all except my mind.

-I Dream of A Human World

I no longer let him know the secrets
sliding in and out of my expressions
because every time he takes more
than my body with him when he leaves.

And as I walk from his front door,
I land on good soil -
because the earth knows what it is to love
the body and the soul.

Never again will I take my body
where my soul can not go.

-More Than My Body

I have placed him underneath a paperweight
for so long, to keep him here beside me.
But now I fold his arms like an airplane,
fly him from my window
and into the night air.

-Leaving the Paper House

These past years sent me this moment,
this quiet, beautiful moment,
where I am alone at last.

- The Ghosts I Have Been

I thought you had come to knock on my door,
to ask of my forgiveness,
to give me love, I thought you had come.

I startled from my bed, ran to find you
on my doorstep -
even though I would not take you back
even though
I would refuse to love you, I thought you had come.

The porch was empty.
The thunder knocked louder against the atmosphere.

I thought you had come back

- The Approaching Storm

I could go on and on sharing bits here and there but I want to save some fun her other readers. Brutal and beautiful, Anderson's poetry is full of many "a-ha!" moments that I really related to and like any good piece of literature, I felt I walked away with some insight about my own life. I highly recommend The Paper-House.

More information on Stephanie Bryant Anderson and her online journal can be found at www.upthestaircase.org.

Review of Chase Von's "Your Chance To Hear The Last Panther Speak"

Chase Von's Your Chance To Hear The Last Panther Speak is one weighty tome of poetry and I've been slowly picking away at it since last fall. Von is a talented writer and this book also contains a song lyrics, quotations, short stories, and even some line drawings thrown in for good measure. Your Chance To Hear The Last Panther Speak is a 234 + page book, perfect-bound available on Amazon.com for $11.70.

As a poet I was drawn to Chase's poetry first and foremost. Call me a sappy romantic, but I love poetry about relationships and this one is one of my favorites in the collection:

I COME TO YOU

I come to you
With a song in my heart
And a prayer in my spirit
I come to you
With love, hope, peace, and truth
And honesty
I come to you
With the knowledge
That I already know you
And the understand
You find that difficult
To comprehend
I come to you from a realm
Where things are like time, space
And energy
Are but words
That scurry from my wake
Like darkness
From the rising sun
I come to you
As I said I would come
So long ago
And I now I ask you
Will you
Come
With me?

Here Chase von writes vulnerably, honestly, and sweetly without being sentimental and trite. I love the line "I come to you/With love, hope, peace, truth/And honesty" that really speaks to the writer's ability to touch upon the raw emotion involved in baring your heart to someone. It is a spiritual and complex love that the author depicts in this poem that is mature, evolved, and devoid of romantic emptiness. The sincerity of "I come to you/With a song in my heart/And a prayer in my spirit" really touched me because of its brilliant simplicity that really, again, encapsulates the longing and hoping of a man inviting his lover to join him on this special path. Chase von manages to evoke trepidation yet hopefulness in so few lines. It is when he's brief and selective and simple that I believe Chase is at his best.

Chase also writes about war with the some passion and acuity as he writes about love. Take "Would Make":

WOULD MAKE

PSI
Pounds per square inch
Any three year old
Can pull a trigger
Having a gun
Doesn't make you a man
It just makes you
Someone with a gun
And any real bonafide man
Who has been to war
And has had to make
The hard decisions
Will tell you
That a lot of folks with guns
Aren't making any better decisions
Than a three year [old]
Would make

These are the sort of poems I like - succinct, words well-chosen, and packs an emotional wallop. Luckily, Your Chance To Hear The Last Panther Speak is full of 'em as well as many other hidden gems.