Book Review: Cuts & Collected Poems 1989 - 2015, by Maria Haskins

Cuts & Collected Poems 1989 - 2015 by Maria Haskins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Cuts & Collected Poems is a collection of poetry by Maria Haskins. Two of the books in the collection were originally written and published in Swedish, and recently translated by the author into English. That feat in itself is exceptional. I found myself wondering how she managed to keep the meaning and emotion in the older poetry, but somehow she has done just that.

All of the poetry is extremely evocative and thought-provoking. I would find myself reading certain lines and actually seeing the action in my head, and then other lines would make me wonder what she meant by that, and this would lead to all sorts of interesting imagery. It's clear that the first book, Cuts—which is the author's most recent poetry book and the first one written in English—is a collection written by a seasoned poet. She is someone who can make the reader feel emotions by just changing the way she constructs a sentence. One of the poems, I can't remember which now, brought a tear to my eye.

The older poetry, written mostly when she was a teenager, is full of passion and angst. There is a lot of dark imagery and you can almost feel the turmoil of a young girl still trying to come to terms with certain emotions and feelings.

This strikes me as a very personal collection of poetry, and it seems almost as if the author uses poetry to untangle the thoughts in her mind and bring clarity.

Cuts & Collected Poems is well worth reading and will take you inside the author's mind. Reading these poems is like venturing into a new world where everything is not quite as it seems.



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