Smorgasbord Book Reviews Rewind – #Poetry – Minus One: With Haikus and Other Poems: The Story of a Life by Elizabeth Merry
I am sharing my reviews from the first few months of 2021. The focus tends to be on new releases but good books deserve to be in the spotlight too on a regular basis.
This is my review from February 2021 for the poetry collection by Elizabeth Merry... Minus One: With Haikus and Other Poems: The Story of a Life
About the collection
This collection sums up the life of the poet. It begins with memories of her parents, in The Red Petticoat: “The lighthouse sweep and beam/Of her glad eyes/Lit us all, haloed the room/Where we stood in a row/To admire.” And in Minus One: “Your absence grips my throat/Chokes my breath . . . How much of you is me/Stretching to close the circle?” Other poems cover growing up and speak of friends and lovers, moving forward to parenthood and beyond, to old age in Bones: “Don’t look too close/Disintegration has begun/And death will lend it speed/Until my bones are bare and/Waiting for the second coming . . . ” And to death in Mortality: “Tombstones/Pale and cold/Line up, waiting/For my name . . . ”
