Jeremy Mifsud's Blog, page 3
April 30, 2019
Draft, Edit, Submit #04: Finding Inspiration in the Self
April is celebrated as the National Poetry Month. As some poets do, I wanted to challenge myself in writing a poem a day.
Usually, I let poems come to me, and so I only write when an idea strikes me. However, this was different: I had to open a blank document and think on what I would have to write about. I also wanted to stick to one theme for the whole month. The purpose of poetry is often self-exploration or therapeutic, and hence I chose the theme of autism & self so that I get to know myself better in a creative way.
The first week was a breeze. I used day-to-day experiences, including ones that I experiences way too many times but never wrote about. As we approached the end of the month, I started to run out of innovative ideas, partly because it is hard to detach autism or the self from everything that happens in life. And in itself, this has been a revelation. I am who I am, all facets intertwined, and even the way I act in relationships and social situations is determined by my traits.
In the end, I managed to write more than thirty poems about being different and quirky and just being myself. In the process of writing, not only have I gotten to understand myself better, but I have gained a new perspective on my interpersonal relationships, as well as a deeper love for who I am. From an artistic perspective, I got to appreciate the value of ‘basic’ events and how we can create art from experiences that at face value, we might think of as mundane.
Overall, I am proud of my commitment and I’m extremely pleased with some of the poems I wrote. In fact, I already have a couple submitted. As for the rest, I’ll need to spend time to edit & rewrite, but they might make it into a chapbook or full-length someday.
Like what I post? Support me on Patreon or donate directly to my PayPal. For a list of my published works, take a look at Publications and consider getting a copy of my full-length collection, Welcome to the Sombre Days.
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April 29, 2019
Poetry Book Review: If My Body Could Speak
If My Body Could SpeakBlythe Baird
I couldn’t quite put “If My Body Could Speak” down, but I couldn’t finish it in one sitting because each poem tore me apart (it was intense beauty). Baird writes about anorexia, being queer, sexual assault, misogyny, and much more. In each of these topics, she writes from a place of honesty, of hurt — it demands the reader to listen, to feel the pain she goes through.
Right off the bat, she
starts with the poem “When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny,” which had gone viral when
Baird performed it. I was struck by several stanzas, but perhaps my favourite
lines are the ending:
when I was little,
someone asked mewhat I wanted to be
when I grow upand I said,
small
When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny
Even when taken out of
the context of the poem, these lines are thunderous. I was struck with how
Baird was able to take these small words and create something big. She didn’t
have to bring out some crazy vocabulary, but rather use language that reflects the
core innocence of childhood and how terrible it is for a child to feel these
things.
Baird doesn’t miss a beat with the consequent poems, each one taking my breath away. In a way, it’s difficult to review the collection without being able to divulge in each poem. “Girl Code 101” stood out to me more than the others:
13,
Girl Code 101
the year dad says wearing short skirts in the city
is like driving without a seatbelt.
The comparison shows not
only the danger but the messed-up mentality of putting the responsibility on
the [potential] victim. The tone is nonchalant, showing how normalised it is
for a thirteen-year-old girl to be ‘taught’ to behave in certain ways. It is her
delivery of this tone that makes the writing so heavy-hitting and poetic. I loved
the use of Biblical imagery to discuss the roots of misogyny in religion. In
the same poem, Baird writes:
Give me one accomplishment of Mary’s
Girl Code 101
that did not involve her vagina.
This was so fucking bold,
but yet fitting. It speaks volumes of how society (and religion) have been
consistently tools of the patriarchy which dictate the value of a woman related
to her procreativity and other feminine standards. She doesn’t hide behind
words in delivering this.
On a similar note,
“Pocket-Sized Feminism” is another banging poem:
Once, my dad informed me sexism is dead
Pocket-Sized Feminism
and reminded me to always carry pepper spray
The paradox comes out
effortlessly, partly because this is a widespread belief. These line should
also be taken into the context of the poem — Baird shows us how it is like to
be constantly harassed and to made feel guilty and responsible for not putting
an end to it. There’s the delicate dance where standing up for yourself or for
other woman will risk her losing friends and get harassed for it (and this
would be especially true during teenager years). It’s a lose-lose situation
which amplifies the pain expressed throughout.
I found both “The Way I
Was Taught to Love” and “An Invitation” to be heart wrenching and realistic
queer poems — I could relate quite personally to these. The former of these is
about the intense relationship with her mother during the coming out period,
and frankly, if I had to quote a line, I’d quote the whole poem. In the latter,
she also writes about her mother:
She hates my selective memory.
An Invitation
She says, You only ever
remember the slammed doors,
But why don’t you
ever write about how I used
to sing to you before
bed every single night?
I’ve had similar
conversations with my mother, and seeing these lines written caught me
off-guard. The mother knows how she nurtured her daughter for so long and
remembers all the sweet things she done, and this is contrasted with the pain
where Baird focuses on the painful events. These poems are not only important
because they tell the poet’s story, but also because many queer people can
relate and understand their relationships better.
As the collection progresses, the poetry becomes even more emotional and strong as sexual assault becomes the pivotal topic. Baird writes:
To live in the body of a survivor
To live in the body of a survivor
is to never be able to leave
the scene of the crime.
The simile is powerful
because in reality, it is not a simile — it is the truth. We’re ordered to
avoid crime scenes; they are closed from public access. Trust me, if you ever
experienced something negative, most likely, you would avoid that place, partly
to avoid future instances, and partly because of triggers and flashbacks. As
assault survivors, we don’t have that luxury. You get to see the victim every
time you look in the mirror. You get to experience the whole ordeal when your
mind ‘goes there’. This also has implications for one’s identity: the ‘I’ tends
to become depersonalised and is disconnected from the body — the crime scene.
This is shown in the use of ‘the’ in the title, “To Live in the Body of a
Survivor.”
Towards the end, Baird
presents “Yet Another Rape Poem”, which is exactly what it claims to be. It’s
aimed at the criticism that she writes too much about rape:
“I know you are threatened
Yet Another Rape Poem
because I am
a thunderstorm of a woman.”
Baird has a voice that
commands attention. Poetry was a safe place for her to share her story. It not
only takes talent to create masterpiece poems like these, but a poet also needs
to be as brave as Baird is in sharing them. Even to be honest with oneself is
difficult, let alone to read these poems in public and print them in books. As
a reader, I felt mightily empowered by this poem and how Baird refuses to be
silenced. Truly, I’ve only got praise for her.
Throughout the collection, I was vulnerable and connected intimately to Baird’s words. The rhythm flowed effortlessly, almost in a tone of a bedtime story in which all that should be shocking is normalised. We’re not given any punch lines or twists, but constantly gut-wrenching pain. This style also reflects the reality of millions of people, of how harassment and assaults aren’t a one-time event but are repetitive, occurring daily and how we suffer the consequences without pause. Amidst the hurt of it all, I found comfort in Baird’s brave poems that left me feeling that I am not alone, that we are stronger together.
I received an Advanced Review Copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Sources and Links:
Book: If My Body Could Speak
Book Cover: Goodreads
Support my writing by donating onKo-Fi or PayPal.me
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April 22, 2019
March 27, 2019
Draft, Edit, Submit #03: A Deluge of Drafts
For me, there’s a clear difference between when I work on drafting and editing. During drafting phase, especially for poetry, I don’t need strong ideas; I need strong emotions. My first drafts are often word vomit that I could coherently understand what I intend of showing. The editing phase is meant to make it stronger (or completely rewrite it), turning into an enjoyable piece.
It’s extremely rare for me to draft and edit a piece on the same day. I tend to undergo phases of either. Last year, I wrote so many drafts (I have over 200 loose drafts roaming on my hard drive, some are utterly scrap). Their purpose of writing was to get it out of my system, and even if they’re never published, they were necessary to write.
This month, I revisited plenty of those drafts, and well, some of them were nightmares (well underwritten). Others contained strong emotions that I was able to feel when reading months later, so I’ve been trying to polish them. There’s an oddity to it because my style and skills have changed, so merging older ideas with my current frame of mind.is not easy.
Having said that, it’s a pleasure reconnecting with some of my older work. As a writer, I am interested in hearing how others writers approach their works.
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March 25, 2019
Advanced Book Review: Little Pills
Little Pills by Melody DoddsLittle Pills is a novel written in verse, following a seventeen-year-old teen with her drug addiction. I found the novel to be creative in its delivery and I couldn’t put it down even though I wasn’t in love with the writing.
What’s surprisingly good is that in a small number of
pages, the author developed several characters and relationships; most
characters made me feel something. There’s a solid backstory to the characters,
and it highlights how drug addiction cannot be extracted from the environment.
Having said that, towards the ending, my emotional investment faded — something
was missing, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. It could easily be the
one-note direction of character development, that although interesting, was
predictable.
As a novel in verse, I have to consider (even more
than usual) the style of writing. Overall, it was rushed and nowhere near fresh.
I’d consider this to be an early draft, with the layout put to structure, but
not yet embellished with writing. Many poems brushed the surface of
conversations and didn’t delve as deep into the character as I would’ve liked.
Moreover, formatting was somewhat basic, especially when it comes to several
ALL CAPS sentences to show anger. It doesn’t help convey the anger, it only
makes me want to skip to next page. At some points, it becomes the author
writing poems to tell us a story, and it rarely feels as if it’s the main
character talking to the paper, which is a huge loss in a first-person novel in
verse.
To sum up, I’m on the fence about this novel. Although I discussed several negative points, at the end of the day, I still enjoyed reading it. Rated as average, I consider that it was worth reading, but I wouldn’t quite recommend it to friends. I’ll leave it in your hands to decide with this one.
I received an Advanced Review Copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review
Sources and Links:
Book: Little Pills
Book Cover: Goodreads
You could support by donating to my Ko-Fi or PayPal.me
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March 18, 2019
Book Review: “Damage” by Poornima Manco
“Damage” by Poornima MancoDamage is a collection of 16 fiction short stories that take place in Indian Societies, both in India and elsewhere. The overarching theme of this book is how those who cause harm to others have grown up damaged. Dark tones progress along the book, from extramarital affairs and gun violence to rape.
The book delivers what it promises. The reader is shown realistic and believable sections of Indian society as Manco writes parts of dialogues in native language[s] to make the characters as authentic as possible. While doing so, the author also embellishes the prose with rich vocabulary and fascinating images. However, stringing pretty words is not sufficient in storytelling.
I enjoyed most plots, yet they felt artificially construed. The characters did not go through sufficient development within the stores, and I felt that these characters were created to show us a story that Manco wants us to see. It was only until the last few stories that I truly enjoyed reading. My favourite was the 11th, “Palindrome”, which started, continued and ended poetically. I’d have loved the whole book to contain a similar structure in which the main premise doesn’t drown the flow of the story — especially in the cases when the story’s rushed with time jumps at every other paragraph.
Along with the previous
point, the characters lacked depth. The author provides us with a description
of physical appearances but fails to create personalities that would stick with
the readers. Moreover, the physical descriptions of each character were
freakishly objectified and sexualised. Arguably, most stories involved love
affairs and sexual intimacy; but this objectification at times is described by
those characters who would be children when they ‘observe’ such things.
One of my other issues with this book is its strong suit: the eloquent writing. Undoubtedly, Poornima Manco is skilful, using a varied repertoire of vocabulary. This is an unfortunate choice when this voice doesn’t suit the narrative. I found it off-putting, distancing me from the main character. Moreover, adverbs and adjectives weakened various paragraphs. In addition, I noticed a few breaks in point-of-view, but an average reader might turn a blind-eye to these.
Overall, Damage is a collection of okay stories and a few hidden gems. Although the themes are gruesome, the realism in each story comes across easily. If you can get past these few pet peeves of mine, I’m confident you’d enjoy the writing. I also think this collection would be particularly interesting to the Indian community as the subtle social criticism may be quite striking.
I received a free Review Copy from Reedsy in exchange for an honest review.
Sources and Links:
Book: Damage
Book Cover: Goodreads
You could give your support by donating to my Ko-Fi or PayPal.me
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March 11, 2019
Poetry Book Review: The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One
Amanda Lovelace’s third
book in the “Woman Are Some Kind of Magic” was published just last week. The
main themes include sexual assault, survivor identity and past relationships, and
thus is at times powerful and emotional.
Compared to other
mainstream books of the same publisher, this collection included a wider variety
of imagery and metaphors, which I did enjoy. Yet, upon reading a long
collection, the voice gets lost. The tone doesn’t vary, and it gets repetitive,
even though the vocabulary progresses.
One of my issues with the book is the formatting, mainly the line breaks. Having a line break after every one or two words is frustrating. It breaks rhythm. It makes it impossible (for me) to read and it distracts me a lot. In some ways, the good poems are drowned
by other
poems
that
make
you
want to
stab
your eyes.
In addition to Lovelace’s
poems, the book features a number of guest poets. Their work was placed between
Lovelace’s poems, so that we alternated from an author poem to a guest poem.
For me, the guest poems were a breath of fresh air — I found myself looking
forward to the next guest poem but not to Lovelace’s one. This led me to
realise that I was liking the author’s poems less than I thought, and evidently
led to my rating drop down to a simple “it was okay.”
All in all, the collection has potential. It has solid metaphors and emotion behind the poetry. I’m not sure that the author managed to deliver what she intended. Would I recommend this book? No. I mean, if you like mainstream poetry or her previous collections, go ahead. But I don’t see this book as being something anyone must have on their bookshelf.
I received an Advanced Review Copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review
Sources and Links:
Book: The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One
Book Cover: Goodreads
Help me read more books by donating on Ko-Fi or PayPal.me
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March 8, 2019
Spoken Word #007: “Archetypes” & “Blossom”
You can listen to the audio of both poems on Anchor, Audio: “Archetypes” & “Blossom”
Both of these poems were printed last year in my collection, “Mar 6, 2019 at 4:10am PST
Poetry Reading #007: “Archetypes” & “Blossom”
You can listen to the audio of both poems on Anchor, Audio: “Archetypes” & “Blossom”
Both of these poems were printed last year in my collection, “
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Free Poetry Book Promo: Welcome to the Sombre Days
It’s been a year since I published my collection, “Welcome to the Sombre Days” (2018). The book is free on Kindle for two days only: today, Friday 8th, and tomorrow, Saturday 9th of March.
[image error] Welcome to the Sombre Days
“Welcome to the Sombre Days“ contains 88 poems, from which a few have been published by other literary magazines. The poems are ordered in a chronological order, with emergent themes of a Catholic upbringing, sexual identity, coming of age, depression & mental illness, personal identity, and relationships.
Downloading the book while it’s free will help it become more visible to other readers. Moreover, a part of me hopes that those of you who read the book and like it could spread the word, leave a rating or a review on Goodreads or Amazon and help my book reach a wider audience.
I’d like to thank all other writers & readers for their support, as well as the editors & readers who believed in my work and published it in their magazines. I wouldn’t be here without the awesome poetry community!
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