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A review by miramichireader
Cold Fire by Donna Allard
5.0
How does one unfamiliar with the world of poetry rate a collection of poems? On accessibility, for me anyway. The poems in Cold Fire are all accessible in one way or another. There are several I particularly liked. Donna Allard's style may be the standard by which I will judge other beat poetry.
Donna assured me: "I write in the people's poet format... so it is easy to read, and easy to read between the lines." That sounded easy enough, so I obtained from her a copy of Cold Fire: Selected Poetry (2019 Sky Wing Press). I was impressed right away by the cover photo (by Jinn Bug) of a lone red leaf with ice along its edges. It would prove to be evocative of many of the fifty-one poems in this slim volume, including "red leaf" (which is dedicated to Jinn):
you are not
forgotten
you are cherished
like a leaf
within the pages
of my heart
Many of the poems deal with death: the loss of a loved one and the emptiness that death leaves the survivor with. Some, like "the essential other" are set in a cemetery:
there are many sweet flowers
and many stones in this garden;
the taller ones named by its dead
a crown of thorns lay hidden
beneath freshly fallen fruit
during autumn's wind
the desire for grace is long gone,
the last rose of the season
shatters under a warm touch
Prophets' words are captive
slaves to otherworldly gods
on a still winter's night
the whisperings of imagination
succumb to frost
Then, seemingly out of the blue, Ms. Allard presents us with "shoot the pen not the poet" in which she angrily states:
This is who I am: a poet when I write but an uncivil
servant when I don't. This ink is my bloodline. I have
no other children, just this, so these pages are the
truth as I know it to be. The truth often lies.
Strong stuff! The poems in Cold Fire are full of great visuals too, my favourite line being: "I am deep in thought like an ice cube half-dissolved in whisky." (From "strolling the blues")
As she assured me, her poems are easy to read, but the fun lies in reading between the lines. For an initial foray into the vast world of contemporary beat poetry, I couldn't do better than Cold Fire.
Donna assured me: "I write in the people's poet format... so it is easy to read, and easy to read between the lines." That sounded easy enough, so I obtained from her a copy of Cold Fire: Selected Poetry (2019 Sky Wing Press). I was impressed right away by the cover photo (by Jinn Bug) of a lone red leaf with ice along its edges. It would prove to be evocative of many of the fifty-one poems in this slim volume, including "red leaf" (which is dedicated to Jinn):
you are not
forgotten
you are cherished
like a leaf
within the pages
of my heart
Many of the poems deal with death: the loss of a loved one and the emptiness that death leaves the survivor with. Some, like "the essential other" are set in a cemetery:
there are many sweet flowers
and many stones in this garden;
the taller ones named by its dead
a crown of thorns lay hidden
beneath freshly fallen fruit
during autumn's wind
the desire for grace is long gone,
the last rose of the season
shatters under a warm touch
Prophets' words are captive
slaves to otherworldly gods
on a still winter's night
the whisperings of imagination
succumb to frost
Then, seemingly out of the blue, Ms. Allard presents us with "shoot the pen not the poet" in which she angrily states:
This is who I am: a poet when I write but an uncivil
servant when I don't. This ink is my bloodline. I have
no other children, just this, so these pages are the
truth as I know it to be. The truth often lies.
Strong stuff! The poems in Cold Fire are full of great visuals too, my favourite line being: "I am deep in thought like an ice cube half-dissolved in whisky." (From "strolling the blues")
As she assured me, her poems are easy to read, but the fun lies in reading between the lines. For an initial foray into the vast world of contemporary beat poetry, I couldn't do better than Cold Fire.