Jeremy Mifsud's Blog, page 5

Butterfly Wings

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This poem was first published by Nightingale & Sparrow. Follow them as they are about to release the inaugural edition, ‘Flight’, tomorrow, 14th February.

If you’d like me to continue providing free content, consider purchasing & reviewing my book, Welcome to the Sombre Days, or donate through Ko-Fi or PayPal.me.

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Book Review: The Rosie Result

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Review

I’m a huge fan of the Don Tillman series, having read and loved the previous books (The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect). Unsurprisingly, this book lived up to my high expectations. The story continues around eleven years later, with Don and Rosie’s child, Hudson, no longer a newborn.

The Rosie Result brings a
fresh angle to the series, with Don Tillman now being a father facing career trouble
due to public outrage. Don is seen through a lens of autism due to the
particular way he does things and he’s pressured by others to identify himself
as autistic. Moreover, his son is facing issues at school, with the threat of
being rejecting from high school due to the frequent meltdowns.

What’s great about this
book is that it provides an authentic, autistic perspective. In this case, the
narrator (i.e. Don, the father) can identify with the son and understand the
issues that he encounters at school. They both experience the pressure from the
neurotypical majority to fit in and change their behaviour. This shifts the
focus from the neurotypical perspective that autistic people are abnormal to
the genuine experience of how autistic minds work, and how the neurotypical
majority create a hostile environment, requiring others to fit in.

In the book, Don says
something that struck me:

“Neurotypicals criticised autistic people for lacking empathy — towards them — but seldom made any effort to improve their empathy towards autistic people.”

This book celebrates
neurodiversity and is a great learning tool for parents, educators, psychologists
and the likes. It brings awareness that what neurotypicals is best might be
counterproductive. As an autistic person, it gave me a lot to think about, to
process about how frequently I feel like I don’t belong, and that after all, I
am not the problem — society’s lack of flexibility is.

Apart from the autistic
aspect, the story is extremely engaging, and has Don’s charm written all over
it. I enjoyed it even more than the previous two books — which I had rated as
five-stars each. The writing is well-researched and there are multitudes of
personalities and characters that grow and change so well across time. They are
quite representational and include am impeccable variety of characters, such as
Gary the homeopath who refuses to immunise his children. There’s a warm sensation
in how Don looks at the world and how he assumes honesty from others and adds
to the narrational charm he possesses.

There are several reasons why I’d recommend this book. It’s a great fictional and literary work. The representation is genuine. Characters are well-developed. And, I believe, one doesn’t need to have read the previous two books to follow this story, although I would obviously suggest reading at least The Rosie Project as it helps us fall deeper in love with Don’s charisma.

I have received an Advanced Review Copy in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published in the UK on 4th April 2019, and can be preordered here: The Rosie Result

Sources and Links:

Book: The Rosie Result
Book Cover: Goodreads
You could give your support by donating to my Ko-Fi or PayPal.me

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Poetry Reading #03: A Queer Hymn Sung by an Atheist

Listen to the reading of the poem “A Queer Hymn Sung by an Atheist” (Audio), which was first published in TERSE Journal.

If you like the content I provide, you could support me by purchasing a copy of my book, Welcome to the Sombre Days, or donate through Ko-Fi or PayPal.me.

Book Round-Up: January 2019

According to Goodreads, I have read 12 books in January (a lot of them being chapbooks). I haven’t posted reviews to each of them [yet], but I regularly review most of what I read. Of the 12 books I read in January, the following are the ones I liked the most:

Hearing the Underwater by Savannah SloneSilver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick (Book Review coming in the next two weeks)poems for the sound of the sky before thunder by Winter Topaz

If you’d like me to review your book, contact me on jeremymifsud1994@gmail.com with details.

If you want me to continue providing content, consider donating via Ko-Fi or PayPal.me, so that I can continue reading. 

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Publication Round-Up: January 2019

Several literary magazines have been publishing my poetry on their online magazines. As these poems are (mostly) not available on this blog, I thought of doing a round-up and presenting links to all the poems that have been digitally published throughout January.

Skyline  in Lucent Dreaming Looking for Beauty  in Constellate Magazine Lost Sheep  in Burning House PressThinking of You in Royal Rose Magazine A Queer Hymn Sung by an Atheist  in Terse Journal Butterfly Wings  in Nightingale and Sparrow

Moreover, I’ve been interviewed twice. You can read the features in the following links.

Jeremy Mifsud in the Spotlight by Lucent Dreaming INKling Wall of Fame: Jeremy Mifsud by INKubator

That’s it for the public posts that are not featured on my blog. As I’ve said in some previous posts, most of these publications offer no payment, and hence I’d appreciate any donations directed to Ko-Fi or PayPal.me, or support by purchasing a copy of my collection, Welcome to the Sombre Days.

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Poetry Book Review: The Year of the Femme

Year of the Femme
Cassie Donish

The Year of the Femme is exactly what I like about contemporary poetry. It’s just so damn pleasant to read. It starts out with a 20-page poem, “Portrait of a Woman, Mid-Fall”, which I absolutely loved. Donish’s language is skilful in these two stanzas:

“At the edge of a field a feeling of arrival awaits
Arrival is not a rival of departure
The two have to work together to make anything happen

All the clocks move together through time
In a flock of birds, some birds are a little behind
All the birds are held together by a principle of form” (p. 15)

In the above excerpt, the
lack of punctuation adds to the poetic marvel; the garden pathing and gentle
echoes are genius.

Throughout the
collection, Donish takes us from one vivid image to another. I compare it to
being in a maze of floral shrubs, that, even when you are not led directly to
your destination, the journey is aromatic and enjoyable, and all I wanted to do
is be lost in her poems forever. Read the beginning of “The Leaf Mask”

            “she saw real birds
as wind-up birds with intricate
machinery, their whistles, the metal

architecture of their wings—she saw
them perched atop the hospital,
where exhausted women brought

catatonic lovers. She thought,
all buildings are wild, inviting people into
their mouths. One day she’ll chew

the crowd to dust, spit out bones, watches,
doves.” (p. 59)

Refreshing—the best word
to describe this collection. The shorter poems were consistently engaging and
vivid, and I was torn between wanting to read it all in one sitting and wanting
to savour it, piece by piece, slowly melting on my tongue. The book ends in the
titular poem, “The Year of the Femme”, which is lyrical in its dualistic
interplay of form and text. In the first stanza, Donish writes:

“I grew up swimming in a
slow-moving river, in words like sister and girls. I knew a waist was supposed
to be soft, knew when it should be covered, when revealed.”

The final poem is rich
with eroticism, with sensuality, with the perfect combination of tight
prose-poetry and loose verse. I find it hard to objectively describe the
poetry, because, it is so much more than vocabulary choice or skilful editing.
No, we’re taken on a journey, a boat ride with your hands running across the
river’s cool surface. Even in the structural dichotomy, Donish’s voice remains
effortless and ever-present.  “The Year
of the Femme” is filled with queerness and the nostalgia of past experience which
might be clearer now, but she goes through them as if it’s her first time,
living them as they should have been lived to begin with. And that’s the most
touching aspect of the whole collection. Donish embeds her voice in crystal
clear images, which in their fragmentation become so complete.

And as the words take a life of their own, as the ink separates from the paper, we’re given a clearer identity while strengthening our connection with our surroundings; each breath becomes a lyrical exchange, to and fro. The essence of being elevates itself to an aesthetic way of being.

I received an Advanced Review Copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review

Sources and Links:

Book: The Year of the Femme
Book Cover: Goodreads
Support Me on Ko-Fi

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Poetry Reading #02: Skyline

As I wrote in a recent post, Draft, Edit, Submit #01, I started reading a selection of poems and uploading them onto Anchor. You can listen to my latest reading, Skyline, which first appeared in print in the third issue of Lucent Dreaming.

If you like the content I provide, you could support me by purchasing a copy of my book, Welcome to the Sombre Days, or donate through Ko-Fi or PayPal.me.

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Poetry Book Review: poems for the sound of the sky before thunder

poems for the sound of the sky before thunder 
Topaz Winters

Note. Direct quotes may appear differently than intended due to editing issues on this blog.

Review

Winters’ collection is both the storm and the silver lining. It starts out well and keeps getting stronger with each poem. Immediately, we’re thrown into a sea of darkness with the poem “Undrowned”, struggling to find ways to stay afloat. It sets out the tone of intensity that is to be expected throughout the collection. In Duologies, Winters writes:

“                                  healing
is the part in the nightmare when you wake up
just before you hit the ground”

(Duologies, p. 22)

I loved these lines because they portray a perfect juxtaposition, the danger of falling is intertwined with the hope of healing. This is what delineates the collection; the interplay of fighting to survive.

It’s a perfect balance of resilience and strength in the midst of darkness. These following lines show that so well:

 “No one ever taught me how to tie a noose,
but no one ever taught me how to heal, either.
This is learning curve beginning with exit wound.”

(Battlefield, p. 30)

There’s a sense of hopelessness but also of hope, in a way that the person is stuck between two possibilities without any help or direction. I also felt a few waves of loneliness, but at the same time, there are strong vibes of independence. We’re all alone to face decisions, the difficulties, the attempts to heal and get better. It centres to the person and the being rather than the surrounding environment. In these poems, I kept finding the reasons to standing back up and fighting, amidst all the pain.

I had to include one of my favourite poems in this review. There’s something about these lines from “Here / Where You Are” that I found to be just perfect:

“          she said                       i don’t think i’ll ever understand you
           just text me when you get home safe okay

i wanted to say                        what do you mean
i wanted to say                        i’m already here”

(Here / Where You Are, p. 38)

I’m already here. Winters found a beautiful way to write about, to what I assume, an unrequited love. It’s romantic yet painful.

Throughout the collection, Winters plays with spacing and format, and she commands the language to serve her poems. It’s one of those things in which I enjoy in poetry. All in all, it was a pleasure to read and would definitely recommend others to check out this collection

I received a free eBook copy in exchange for an honest review

Sources and Links:

Book: poems for the sound of the sky before thunder 
Book Cover: Goodreads
Support Me on Ko-Fi

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Draft, Edit, Submit #01: Expanding Horizons

This series will be all about the ‘behind the scenes’ poet and updates about drafting, editing, submissions, and so on. For my first blog post in the Draft, Edit, Submit series, I wanted to discuss how I’m challenging myself to expand my horizons and provide different content beyond written poetry.

Posting poems online usually excludes them from the possibility of publication in most literary journals. Sucks, I know. I brainstormed on what content I could provide, and since I have the rights to the published poems, I’ll be recording myself reading them and posting them to my Anchor. To start of this project, I started off by reading Welcome to the Sombre Days, the titular poem from my collection.

If you’ve been following me on social media or have looked at my Publications page, you might’ve noticed that I’ve had a handful of poems published by several journals. Thus, I’m determined to have sufficient content to read to you. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities they’ve given me and many other talented writers.

Unfortunately, most of them are unable to afford paying contributors; we tend to publish our pieces simply to get our work out there. Thus, I set up a Ko-Fi page and a PayPal.me to accept donations from anyone who enjoys my content and is able to provide any support. I didn’t want to put any content behind a paywall, so I wanted financial support to be only optional.

I’m determined to pay back by working hard, striving to continuously improve and provide quality content both on this blog and in publications worldwide. Moreover, as an avid reader, I support authors by publishing reviews on this blog, as well as on Goodreads. In fact, I’ve had several authors contact me directly to review their books, which I think is exciting, and I’m hoping my reviews are helping their work getting more recognition.

At the end of the day, I’m grateful to be writing as much as I can. I’ve met wonderful writers already, and am happy to be part of the writing community. I hope you join in as I continue to write more blog posts. If you have any topics you’d like me to discuss, send your suggestions in the comments below.

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Poetry Book Review: Hourglass Museum

Hourglass Museum
Kelli Russell Agodon



Review

The title is well-fitting for this collection. Kelli uses artistic imagery and references throughout the book. I specifically liked the titles of the poems, especially when they included “A portrait” or “An Abstract”; fusing art with poetry. Right off the bat, Frida Kahlo is mentioned, which I’m pretty pleased with. I don’t have much experience with art, but the references weren’t lost on me. The imagery of brushstrokes and other techniques worked well, and although used multiple times, it did not end up being repetitive. It was sufficiently varied and kept the collection consistent.

When I write reviews, I tend to include verses or poem titles that really struck me. With this collection, I didn’t have any personal connection—nothing stood out for me. I still enjoyed reading everything and wasn’t displeased by one bit, but, it also failed to make me fall in love with the writing. It’s one of those where I know it’s well-written, but I don’t feel it’s magic, which might quite be personal. It’d definitely be a book I’ll look into again in the future.

Sources and Links:

Book: Hourglass Museum
Book Cover: Goodreads
Reviewer: Jeremy Mifsud

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