When I have wandered
long enough
what am I still beholden to?
Ifá. Nature. Illness. Love. Loss. Misogyny. Aging. Africa. Our wounded planet. In this sweeping yet intensely personal collection, Lauren Martin tells the untold stories of the marginalized, the abused, the ill, the disabled—the different. Inspired by her life’s experiences, including the isolation she has suffered as a result both of living with chronic illness and having devoted herself to a religion outside the mainstream, these poems explore with raw vulnerability and unflinching honesty what it is to live apart—even as one yearns for connection.
But Night of the Hawk is no lament; it is powerful, reverential, sometimes humorous, often defiant—“Oh heat me and fill me / I rise above lines”—and full of wisdom. Visceral and stirring, the poems in this collection touch on vastly disparate subjects but are ultimately unified in a singular quest: to inspire those who read them toward kindness, compassion, and questioning.
Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.
Ultimately, this collection wasn't for me. At times the poetry comes off as a bit immature and I found myself a bit uncomfortable with some poems such as the one on post menopausal women. I don't really care if men feel emasculated and that as a term to use feels a bit weird; yes they need to be educated out things, but you do need to hear the discomfort of younger women when you want to say it like that.