In last year’s CBR, I tried to hype National Poetry Month by reviewing several books of poetry. This year, in anticipation of doing the same thing, I bought several new collections of poems and dug out some books from my personal library that I had never gotten around to reading. Sadly, I neglected to notice that April was National Poetry Month. I completely missed it by two months. So, I will have to make my own thirty days of poetry. First up is Gary Soto’s A Fire in My Hands.
I picked this little gem up for $4 at a local Half-Price Books. That is a mercifully low price for a short but substantial collection of free verse. This is a novice-friendly book; it includes an introduction by Soto explaining how he got into poetry and a little of his biography. Each poem in the collection includes a little bubble from the author giving some insight about the poem’s background or the circumstances that made him write. Finally, at the end of the book, there is a Q&A with the author. The context and trivia are helpful for readers who are either unsure of what to make of poems or who like to peek behind the scenes.
Soto grew up in and around Fresno, California. Most of the poems are snapshots of his youth. He wanders around his neighborhood on a lazy weekend. He walks around the block with a girl. He feels a jolt of energy from sugary cereal. He learns from his grandfather. In the revised edition, Soto also talks about his daughter and trying to make sense of their relationship. As a new parent, these newer poems were particularly meaningful for me.
Soto’s poems were so simple and resonant that they made me want to write a few of my own. That’s why this book gets four stars from me – good art makes you want to do some creating of your own. This book can be inspiring for readers at any level of sophistication. Pick it up, and pay attention to my favorite, “Inheritance”.
What a lovely review. I do feel slightly ashamed for missing Poetry Month, but it is never the wrong month for poetry.