‘THE TURN OF THE CENTURY’ Cloudkeeper Press, $7.00, poems by Julia Carlson
I will twirl, and twirl and twirl throughout my life
and I will fall fall fall drifting down
finally shook from the branches one last time
Julia Carlson bites off the head of illusion. She shows us the reality of her generation within a century, like all centuries searching for what and how to become more human and the struggle of being actual
the shed now filled with the odor
of blood, urine, and wool
This small book of poems, a bible cut from the cloth that clothes all of us, wraps us in rough wool, takes us out of hewn caves; we begin to see ourselves as characters born from material needs
I wanted to be a tap dancer a ballerina a theatre
usher a housewife a guardian angel an editor…
and from her poem, anorexia;
as if they skipped
the blossom-time entirely
and proceeded straight on
to the withering and drying up
Carlson’s first soft book speaks with a laud and clear voice. I followed every word, looking for answers to this life. What I found was and is a master telling us to write our own poems. This chapbook is worth more than the seven dollar charge, you will come away with a sense of how a poem can enlighten and can become. The truth is Carlson’s poems brought me to my knees in the same way some of the great Russian novelist did
bravo
Irene Koronas
