Growing up Wild |
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| Author:
| Cornejo, Melanie |
| ISBN: | 978-0-615-84635-4 |
| Publication Date: | Aug 2013 |
| Publisher: | Aldrich Press
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $14.00 |
Book Description:
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Beneath the deceptively simple subject matters of these poems, a quiet young hand conveys some unnamed ancient power-unnamed but gratefully celebrated by those who will recognize an authentic poetic heart. ~ Dr. Joan Wines
GROWING UP WILD by Melanie Cornejo is a fine book because it shows us who and how we were and, hopefully, still are in lines like "We learned the deep, low rumble of the hoot owls through thin window panes" and "I can taste the 101 under my tongue/and feel...
More Description
Beneath the deceptively simple subject matters of these poems, a quiet young hand conveys some unnamed ancient power-unnamed but gratefully celebrated by those who will recognize an authentic poetic heart.
~ Dr. Joan Wines
GROWING UP WILD by Melanie Cornejo is a fine book because it shows us who and how we were and, hopefully, still are in lines like "We learned the deep, low rumble of the hoot owls through thin window panes" and "I can taste the 101 under my tongue/and feel the 1 under my skin/as if I were born from them." There is sentiment here, hard, edgy, yet tender. In "Vysehrad" the poet remembers when "we wore sundresses/and sat in the alley of a/fortress, forgiving." We do not know what has to be forgiven, only that it is remembered and needs to be forgiven. In "Firenze" we see Florence in "checkered tiles of your apartment floor" and lovely irony in "the promises we made over lasagna." A lesser poet would heavily remind us of those promises, over fine a wine and delicate Florentian salad. But that's for bad poems and movies, and this book is neither of those. She says New York "is made in every way I want to be unmade,..and I will be content find myself/eternally unfound." Growing up wild gave her great gifts, not the least of which is the ability to notice and, better, say: in "Nights Like These" she notices that "In the tall dry grass, crickets harmonize to the hum of distant motors." Since memory is vital, Melanie Cornejo is determined not to lose it. In "44 Logging Road" she says "I dream in shades of green and grey,/the humid stamp of childhood worn in/until I feel it's almost in my reach." Anything more would be soft, weak. There is no hint of that in her work: "I realize you dream in shades of her/and I, a mirror of a memory,/am wrong to love this place you lost her in." It is rare that a first book by a young author has the authority found in poems like "Nowhere near" : "The pulse of the world/is nowhere near the pulse of this moment." This book is full of seriously happy moments lived and relived by a poet of considerable talent, and in "The Search," she stakes claim on the future and speaks to all of us when she says "...I'll rage because you taught me to,/and search because I must."
-J.T. Ledbetter, author of OLD AND LOST RIVERS