Fire Wheel

by Sharmila Voorakkara

The poems in Fire Wheel dip in and out of family history and myth; the subjects of its poems are as varied as Helen of Troy, and Audrey, a Fury who makes her rounds at Laundromats, proclaiming the coming Armageddon. I, too, am manmade, born of rib and / rayon, says Audrey, and I'll tell you just what / your'e not above. By turns elegiac and humorous, Fire Wheel's poems also question the nature of family and identity. In Poem for My Father, Once a Vacuum Cleaner Salesman, Now an Ascetic a daughter reflects on her father, a man who abandons his family in search of spiritual enlightenment. In which sage life/ will I find you? she asks. My Suicide Uncles traces the crossing of immigrants between the old country and the new, and its sometimes devastating results. Whether the poems are about circus sideshow performers, delinquents, or mythic figures, the poems of Fire Wheel try to blend the real with the imagined, to find the place where the two worlds intersect to create an ever-shifting borderland of the self.

Genres: Poetry

89 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2005

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first poetry book I borrowed from my college's Women's Center among many- I think Sharmila Voorakkara visited the school at one point.

Voorakkara, a New Jersey native, writes fiction poems about family, being different, and city grit and grime. I don't think that the poems are autobiographical, since they travel from suicidal uncles to abused wives to circus performers to transvestites at bars. But I guess everyone has a story to tell- maybe Voorakkara is telling the sort of history that poems don't often address.

Voorakkara does not hold back and her words are tough and hard to digest. They aren't flowery or clean, even when about nature or other beautiful things. It was interesting to read poems from the point of view of old men or battered women, because Voorakkara takes on so many roles and wears them all quite well. But my favorite poems remain in the POV of someone is who lost and looking to belong.

Some Highlights: "Tin Man," "Ophelia Among the Fish," the Helen of Troy poems, "Audrey, the Laundromat Fury, Says," "For the Tattooed Man," "The Last Nickel Dance"

[Jeff Tigchelaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

i thought this poetry was amazing. i want to obtain this author's autograph. she lives here in town i think. maybe i will. maybe i just will.

[The University of Akron Press]

Fire Wheel (Akron Series in Poetry) by Sharmila Voorakkara (2005)