By Megan Thomas
It was a pleasure to read, written by my talented friend Christie. Of course, it can be tricky to read a book when you know the author as it is – a poetry collection, I’d argue, is harder, because they are so deeply personal.
However, while so much of what I loved about reading this was getting an even deeper window into Christie’s soul, I simultaneously loved its ability to transport me out of myself and therefore out of a frame of mind where the author even exists and the poems speak for themselves.
It took me a long time to feel like I wasn’t an imposter when reading poetry, and it is anthologies like this that remind me how much I love it. It’s both unpretentious and intricate, simple and consumable yet loaded with meaning. I read the collection cover to cover, then paged back through it, reading lines and poems out of context and gaining more and more.
There is such natural rhythm and energy in Christie’s poems that at times I felt myself compelled to read them out loud. Some made me laugh out loud, others made me choke up, while some forced me to take a long look inwards. It is in large part an exploration of self – or rather a reconstruction of self and somehow, through Christie’s personal journey from Louisiana to Wales and the lost and found love in between, the reader finds a sense of peace and resolution alongside the poet.
Before reading this, I might have said that a poetry anthology is too short for what feels like an autobiography to come to life, but that was not an issue here. It feels like an epic journey in terms of the breadth of emotion and experience, and yet distilled into something sharp, poignant, life-affirming, validating and authentic.
There is also, of course, the fact that this is illustrated with artwork by Dutch artist Erna Kuik. Half the poems were written in response to Erna’s art, and the other half were the inspiration for Erna’s art. It is a wonderful element and shows the power of artistic interpretation and expression.
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