Against a constellation of solar weather events and evolving pandemic, Jeannine Hall Gailey’sFlare, Corona paints a self-portrait of the layered ways that we prevail and persevere through illness and natural disaster.
Gailey deftly juxtaposes odd solar and weather events with the medical disasters occurring inside her own brain and body— we follow her through a false-alarm terminal cancer diagnosis, a real diagnosis of MS, and finally the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The solar flare and corona of an eclipse becomes the neural lesions in her own personal “flare,” which she probes with both honesty and humor. While the collection features harbingers of calamity, visitations of wolves, blood moons, apocalypses, and plagues, at the center of it all are the poet’s attempts to navigate a fraught medical system, dealing with a series of challenging medical revelations, some of which are mirages and others that are all too real.
In Flare, Corona, Jeannine Hall Gailey is incandescent and tender-hearted, gracefully insistent on teaching us all of the ways that we can live, all of the ways in which we can refuse to do anything but to brilliantly and stubbornly survive.
My Review can not even compare to the above "about Flare, Corona." I strongly agree with that synopsis.
I read about 2-3 of the poems/works each day. Each one to me is like a strong heavy drink. Also I don't always know exactly what I am reading or the true meaning, but I feel it very strong. After reading more and more it began to sink into the timing and the meaning... I felt powerful sad, and strong. I love the deep raw stuff.
I feel it in my brain, it feels like stream of consciousness poetry and I feel my brain grip it and go places with it. I cry and I wonder as I read. Connective writing to a very confusing time for all, and yet so personal to the author.
I recommend this collection. It's a grand slam on emotion.
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