When I have wandered
long enough
what am I still beholden to?
Ifá. Nature. Illness. Love. Loss. Misogyny. Aging. Africa. Our wounded planet. In this sweeping yet intensely personal collection, Lauren Martin tells the untold stories of the marginalized, the abused, the ill, the disabled—the different. Inspired by her life’s experiences, including the isolation she has suffered as a result both of living with chronic illness and having devoted herself to a religion outside the mainstream, these poems explore with raw vulnerability and unflinching honesty what it is to live apart—even as one yearns for connection.
But Night of the Hawk is no lament; it is powerful, reverential, sometimes humorous, often defiant—“Oh heat me and fill me / I rise above lines”—and full of wisdom. Visceral and stirring, the poems in this collection touch on vastly disparate subjects but are ultimately unified in a singular quest: to inspire those who read them toward kindness, compassion, and questioning.
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Give me peace
Give me hope
Give me a soul
From which to stand
– Essential of Man
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(@shewritespress, 14 May 2024, e-galley, 80 pages, #ARC from @PoeticBookTours, #BogTour 16 April)
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This is new poet for me. I really enjoyed Night of the Hawk. The poems cover a wide range of subjects so I never quite knew what to expect when I turned the page. The poems are well-written and engaging. I enjoyed the poet’s use of language and imagery a lot. I could engaged with all of the poems. I especially liked As The Bow Breaks, the title poem, Impact, Ziggy and Dawn. I’d recommend this.
4/5
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