Insomniatic by Valerie Fox - A review by Toni

The Review: It is a tiny little book. This is a tiny little review for a tiny collection of powerful poetry.   I can't pretend to get it all, but somewhere in my head bits of my brain sucked in the words and there was  some sort of "knowing and getting it." 

The words expanded in my brain and my brain sought to find the connections.  There were connections made and thoughts were provoked.  There was something deep and mildly disturbing that came from familiarity and something annoying from not understanding.  

Seahorses, Ants, and Disney....

It pricked my brain in interesting ways.



About:

Insomniatic is the newest poetry chapbook from Valerie Fox, author of The Roschach Factory and The Glass Book. These poems haunt and question, dream and wander, asking the reader to question what is a dream state and what does it mean to be awake."Insomniatic" (poems) asks the question: Who are we when we dream?

About the Poet:

Valerie Fox’s books of poetry include The Rorschach Factory (2006, Straw Gate Books) and The Glass Book (2010, Texture Press). She co-wrote Poems for the Writing: Prompts for Poets with Lynn Levin. Bundles of Letters Including A, V and Epsilon (2011, Texture Press) is a collaborative book with Arlene Ang. "Scarecrow Lists of Failures and Grocery Items" (a collaboration with Ang) may be found here, at Thrush.

Her work has appeared in many journals, including Thrush, Painted Bride Quarterly, Hanging Loose, Apiary, West Branch, Sentence, and Qarrtsiluni. Originally from central Pennsylvania, she has traveled and lived throughout the world, and has taught writing and literature at numerous universities including Sophia University (in Tokyo) and currently at Drexel University (in Philadelphia).
GoodReads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36558805-insomniatic

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/2DP2rxs

Schedule:

April 27: The Soapy Violinist (Review)
April 30: Diary of an Eccentric (Guest Post)
May 4: Mia Sutton (Review)
May 7: Wall-to-Wall Books (Review)
May 15: Readaholic Zone (Review)
May 17: Impressions in Ink (Review)
May 24: True Book Addict (Review)
May 26: Mrs. Mommy Booknerd’s Book Reviews (Review) 

Earth Day 2018

I celebrated with a drive.  It was the day after a long 13.1 mile trail run and my body was stiff.
 The drive went from Roseville to Auburn, through Cool, Coloma and to Placerville.  I had some stops to take pictures and take healing steps and explore trail head parking (Knickerbocker). Then back to El Dorado, And a stop at Folsom Point.
My focus was the earth and how lucky we are.  Some beer and Cheetos were consumed and then a drive back to Beal’s Point to walk up to a levee. (Hips don’t lie)
My pictures sucked this day... but this pretty picture sticks in my mind from Folsom Point... appropriately as that is where my race began.
Belated Earth Day Post.   Every Day is Earth day.  Love our planet!!!
Nikon

Scars to Your Beautiful - Alessia Cara

She just wants to be beautiful

She goes unnoticed, she knows no limits

She craves attention, she praises an image

She prays to be sculpted by the sculptor

Oh, she don't see the light that's shining

Deeper than the eyes can find it

Maybe we have made her blind

So she tries to cover up her pain and cut her woes away

Cause covergirls don't cry after their face is made

But there's a hope that's waiting for you in the dark

You should know you're beautiful just the way you are

And you don't have to change a thing

The world could change its heart

No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful.

And you don't have to change a thing

The world could change its heart

No scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful

She has dreams to be an envy, so she's starving

You know, covergirls eat nothing

She says "beauty is pain and there's beauty in everything"

"What's a little bit of hunger?"

"I can go a little while longer," she fades away

She don't see her perfect, she don't understand she's worth it

Or that beauty goes deeper than the surface, oh, oh

So to all the girls that's hurting, let me be your mirror

Help you see a little bit clearer the light that shines within

~ bits of song?  Truth... 

Yeah... let that sink in...

..... and so on... and so on... and we all can sit and think, know and believe that this song is about us... and it is true.  Truly beautiful just the way we are...completely.  

The Other Side of the Lake

Next Week I will jog / walk a half Marathon (Folsom Lake Trail Run 2018) on the other side of this plump beautiful reservoir. I trained a bit under (boo) peaked too soon (boo)  and did not correct body obstacles/ issues.   But I am ready and excited because I know I can reach in, dig and do this!!! 4/21/2018.
I looked across the water today on my taper walk today and I was mesmerized by the miles and water.
I just might be a bit slower than I had imagined.    It will mean a lot to me... even worth the ugly crawl across the finish  or the completion time.  It just means a lot to me.
#SEVENDAYS

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The last picture was just a little adventure down a little trail off the levee. And that green little valley opened up and said hello to me.   And I was enchanted.
Happy Weekend.

Photo notes:  Camera on Auto setting really did capture the vivid day.  No filters, no edits. I wonder about these things when I take pictures.  I see the edited landscapes, mountains and bridges pictures that are so prevalent these days and I can't make up my mind if I can go there... changing the pictures of what I saw to something else.   I think that is my official art block... so I will work on removing the stick and getting more creative.

Filterless Friday

Super quick pic... auto settings... windy and pre-dusk lighting.... on the camera.... I just enjoyed the not-so- perfect shot.   #nothingspecialbutpink

How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz - Review by Toni

How to Love the Empty Air by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

My Review:  This collection is the most powerful and completely moving, chest clenching, tear drop making, heart bursting, head on my desk, hand to my mouth, beautiful  bit of writing that I have experienced in longer than I can recall.   I completely have sunk into this story and I am still hanging out in it.  It is with me.

Like a rough grit, it took me down and  then gave me my own tender human heart right back.  Page after page, it gave me permission to feel, grieve, love, be angry, and say goodbye.  I am forever touched by this book and I keep it with me and re-read and soak it up over and over again.  

I am forever moved and a vast life discovery has  settled into my being, that we all have a universal experience in life, no matter how completely unique our story.     I am forever indebted to books that open our center  to feel and experience the human experiences of grief, love, pain, and healing.   This is one of those books.      I give all my regards and high recommendation to this collection.

About the Collection:

Vulnerable, beautiful and ultimately life-affirming, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s work reaches new heights in her revelatory seventh collection of poetry. Continuing in her tradition of engaging autobiographical work, How to Love the Empty Air explores what happens when the impossible becomes real―for better and for worse. Aptowicz’s journey to find happiness and home in her ever-shifting world sees her struggling in cities throughout America. When her luck changes―in love and in life―she can’t help but “tell the sun / tell the fields / tell the huge Texas sky…. / tell myself again and again until I believe it.” However, the upward trajectory of this new life is rocked by the sudden death of the poet’s mother. In the year that follows, Aptowicz battles the silencing power of grief with intimate poems burnished by loss and a hard-won humor, capturing the dance that all newly grieving must do between everyday living and the desire “to elope with this grief, / who is not your enemy, / this grief who maybe now is your best friend. / This grief, who is your husband, / the thing you curl into every night, / falling asleep in its arms…” As in her award-winning The Year of No Mistakes, Aptowicz counts her losses and her blessings, knowing how despite it all, life “ripples boundless, like electricity, like joy / like... laughter, irresistible and bright, / an impossible thing to contain.”

HOW TO LOVE THE EMPTY AIR brilliantly illuminates why we read poetry, and why poetry is needed. We read it to see another person’s unique experience, but also to help us clarify our own. And we read it to reassure ourselves that what we experience and feel it part of a larger human drama that we all share.  Cristin reminds readers how huge, life-shifting events are totally unique and personal—and yet, they are also universal.  

About the Poet:

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is the author of seven books of poetry, including The Year of No Mistakes, crowned the Book of the Year for Poetry by the Writers' League of Texas. She is also the author of two books of nonfiction, most recently Dr Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine, which spent three months on the New York Times Best Seller List. Recent awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the ArtsEDGE write-in-residency at the University of Pennsylvania and the Amy Clampitt Residency. When not on the road, she lives in Austin with her husband.

Book Comes out March 20.

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36515260-how-to-love-the-empty-air

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2G0st3f

Thank You Serena for inviting me to participate in this blog tour.

Review coming....