Review by Toni Colleen - Impermanence by Ren Powell

I try to review Poetry writings and read them because I need to.  I believe we all need to.     My mind is so literal sometimes that it is hard for me to get carried away in poetry.   But the more you read, the more you feel what you are reading.

This book was not like some of the poetry that is too much for me. 

I am just going to say it up front this collection was utterly mesmerizing and is completely beautifully written.  It is a cohesive collection  of poems that had a meaning for me in almost every single one.    I reviewed the pdf, so I did not get the tactile part of the art actually in my hands.  However even without that the artistry stands on fine ground digitally.    The collection reads perfectly all together and also individually. 

My mind was absorbed in writing and the nature and the themes "The stories we tell." I found it to be an elevating read and personally grounding in the words and some of the  plain and simple truths of our human existence and connection to nature and the inanimate world. 

I became engrossed in thought about the stories we tell for people to understand, and how we can not actually land that story because it can and most likely will morph along the way -  out of our control in our very short existence. 

It has stunning, creative and thought provoking artwork with a touch of hand writing, and photos of a bust that reoccur throughout the book.  I didn't seem to "get it" until as I was watching this bust as a part of everything in the universe and the connectivity of everything in life.  By the end of the book it was alive and thinking along with me.   It showed up for me in the journey into this book.  I was not alone.

My favorite parts: ( I will only pick two

"You are

an origami box

in a soft rain.

Who turned you over 

and over - running a

bone folder along

your once-open body

to close you in

on yourself?"

 

and

"And when the Storm passes

it will have dropped lizards

from faraway lands 

into your lap"

I have no regrets on reading this book except I don't have it in my hands, that I did not read it outside, or on a mountain or at the coffee shop.   I will be reading this over and over again. 

About The  Book

Impermanence by Ren Powell

A Mad Orphan Lit. Publication

A Conceptual Multimedia Artwork:

42 Poems

Plaster/paper mache bust (video) and photography

Acrylic Monoprints

Moroccan handmade paper (hardcover)

"We are the stories, and our bodies books...

This project began with meditation on the idea of impermanence. And with this image, with

the body-as-story slowly losing shape. With our.narratives falling apart, becoming loose

elements that can/will be rearranged in another story. Which is what history is, after all.

The bust was made of plaster and paper mache and was photographed in various locations in the Jæren landscape of Norway. It was supposed to break up slowly in the waterfall during filming. However, it was taken by the current and slipped under an old mill house - trapped by the torrent of water, the wooden

beams, and the rocks.

But, well, this is what happens when we try to plan our stories. Isn’t it?"

Double-Needle Coptic Stitching

(note: this intentionally loose stitch allows for an open-back and “lay flat” binding)

15 X 20 cm, 64 pages

Text block: 160 gsm acid-free, ethically resourced paper

Limited series of 10

April 2021

120 EURO plus shipping.

Ships from Norway. http://madorphanlit.com

Paperback facsimiles available at

https://www.blurb.com/b/10652707-impermanence

for 15 USD plus shipping. (link includes preview)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT IT

“Ren Powell’s Impermanence acts as a reminder, both visual and visceral–in its

physiological meaning (the heart, the gut)–that we live in and through the stories we tell.

The cursive in her illustrations operates as one of several connectors that loop through

her poems until these pictures and words combine to create, as she puts it, origami boxes: 

“your stories/ folding in on themselves.”

 

– Ann E. Michael, poet and novelist

“... you look up day after day surprised by the foreign landscapes of your own making”

Ren Powell’s seventh poetry collection dissects the minutiae of life, and puts it back

together in different unfamiliar shapes. Impermanence is what we are. In this collection of

new poems, Ren Powell turns the human condition into a collage of words, drawings, and

the blank spaces between breaths."

 

-Richard Pierce, poet/novelist/radio personality

WHO IS REN POWELL?

Ren Powell is a writer and teaching artist. She is a native Californian – now a Norwegian

citizen settled on the west coast of Norway. Ren has been a member of The Norwegian

Author’s Union since 2005 and has published six full-length collections of poetry and more

than two dozen books of translations with traditional publishing houses. Her poetry

collections have been purchased by the Norwegian Arts Council for national library

distribution, and her poems have been translated and published in eight languages. Ren is

currently focusing on handbound poetry collections and mixed media experimentation as

Mad Orphan Lit.

WHAT IS MAD ORPHAN LIT?

After twenty-two years of publishing poetry and translations through traditional publishing

houses, Ren Powell wanted to take a literal hands-on approach to bookmaking. With two

years of university studio-art classes under her belt, and private bookbinding workshops

with an award-winning binder, she has finally taken the step to pull it all together as the

Mad Orphan Literature project. Impermanence is the first of many projects including

broadsides and gift books.

For more information 

Ren Powell can be reached at renpowell.writer@gmail.com 

http://renpowell.com 

Twitter as @madorphanlit 

Insta as @madorphanlit_poetry 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RenPowellMadOrphanLit

To hear a reading: https://renpowell.com/books-mixed-media-projects/

Thank you Serena @ Poetic Book Tours for the opportunity to read such a fine book.