Resurrection Fail
by John Wall Barger
Spuyten Duyvil (2021)

Resurrection Fail begins with the disciplined and passionate detailing of personal experiences our author, John Wall Barger, but like a swinging pendulum, readers are thrusted into a surreal exploration of their own human experience. We are taken on a metaphoric journey through existentialism and the consequences of living, all whilst travelling hand-in-hand with Barger.

Readers are transported through an exploration of, not only the author’s world, but also their own. Masterful in craft, the collection is broken into four sections by utilizing four individual pieces titled Resurrection Fail. These pieces act as guiding points and pillars throughout the whole collection – bringing forth and conveying a variety of anecdotal truths.

The author teaches the reader that the surreal and seemingly impossible often twists and melds into the inevitable and anticipatory. Enthusiasm in the examination of the now leaches from the page, but the progression of the collection swings us to a place in which past meets present, as is presented in Resurrection Fail:

Like the anatomy student
I once met
who slid the sheet
off a corpse
and there was
his childhood crush. (76)

Barger’s impeccable ability to fuse word with emotion brings out intricate intimacy, threaded throughout the collection. We are entirely at the mercy of the author as we navigate a plethora of facets of the human experience: loss, death, suicide, pleasure, reconnection. Time and time again, we are reminded that beauty cannot exist without bleeding brutality, as represented in Resurrection Fail:

… so I saw her again
with all her faces at once
like a village,
the villagers walking out
to the night forest
bearing the beloved in their arms
the one who would die that night. (57)

By posing commentary on topics that have the potential to be universally understood, Barger gives readers the opportunity to engage on both a collective and individualized journey. This is perfectly displayed in Resurrection Fail, which prompts the reader to think about the colour of the moon, their knowledge of the moon, and what they believed to be true, all while then connecting this realization back to a time over the barracks of Birkenau:

… Moon
can mean sorrow:
as in, I read how the dark
side of the moon
is actually turquoise
which glows like ice
over the barracks
of Birkenau. (39)

And, perhaps Barger is correct in implying that we, the readers, are filled with only the most falsified calcification of hope, that our gullibility and amateurism is inevitable in living and only found in death. With that, we are left with our final pillar of Resurrection Fail, which opens the collection with a bittersweet and masterful note:

Is it a joke to yoke us
one to another
with love
just to yank us apart,
like parodies of the sacred? (13)

The post Review of John Wall Barger’s “Resurrection Fail” appeared first on FreeFall Magazine.

Catherine Owen’s Riven is a collection of poems woven together to blend the feeling of loss with the introspection of life offered by the river. Captivating imagery engulfs the reader, allowing them to be transported to the banks of the Fraser River; to smell the moss growing on tree stumps, to hear water lapping against river’s edge, to be entirely encompassed by the sounds of nature in its purest form. 

Humans have always settled near the water, and Owen transcendentally moves the readers to the banks of the Fraser River to explain different life lessons, as told by the rushing water and all other organisms present in the river setting. The loss of life is transcribed by the author in such a manner that is exploitative of the circle of life as told from the point of view of loss-veiled eyes. 

In many instances, the author allows the readers to two different perspectives; the first coming from the individual emotion conveyed due to the loss of her loved one, whereas the second is metaphysical in nature and focuses on external surroundings. Metaphorically, the river acts as a representation for the life and death we encounter throughout our lives, focusing on the loss, the hope, and the memories created throughout the navigation of life itself. 

Though a majority of the grief-stricken content focuses on the natural aspects of Owen’s environment, it becomes apparent that even manmade structures exist in the serenity created by the banks of the river. These structures and their interaction within the ecosystems act as key players in the author’s understanding of the two worlds working with and within one another to create a complete picture. The water is ever flowing, ever moving, and this coincides beautifully with the ever-changing landscape of human nature and the effects of manmade structures as they mingle with nature: 

Prolong me along the estuary 

where the cataclysmic wildflowers, all their poppy-joy- vermillion smitten in pointillist manifold burgeon 

and there are discarded rust hangers too beautiful not to be unwedged from granite and shouldered home, such bolds & rivers of ruin. (14) 

Throughout Riven, readers are taken on an introspective, personal, and relatable journey through the evolution of love, loss, and the memories that flow in the same manner the Fraser River flows through the Greater Vancouver region. Despite the heavy themes present throughout the collection of writing, Owen is a master of her craft, giving readers the opportunity to float verse after verse with a melodic approach. 

Just like the waves lapping the shore, flicking the banks with its soothing tongue, Riven captivates, moves, and encourages readers to delve into contemplation and raw emotion, all whilst connecting to the serenity of nature. Through life, loss, and the searing pain that memory can bring, Owen sums up her own collection with the single statement: 

You will never entirely appreciate O River, which is what gave it this name. (78)

The post Review of Catherine Owen’s “Riven: Poems” appeared first on FreeFall Magazine.