The World is Full of Pain

Kelsay Books, 2022

The poet uses the complex lens of her language to focus on a wild and rough terrain. Sometimes the voice is commonplace at first, then surprises and takes flight. A poem may begin with a simple dramatic statement then swerve down a dark profound road. As a reader of poetry, I especially appreciate the fact that almost all of the poems are accessible at a first reading. Variety exists in style from free verse to sonnets, pantoums, haiku and tanka, always careful in emphasizing the drama in the situation. The poet also flies into the past through the art of remembering. Lives and loves are recaptured through the magical mirror of her words. Specific events are raised to the level of poetry. Details shine. This collection speaks directly to the current times and will continue to be relevant and meaningful to readers in the future.

Excerpts from The World is Full of Pain:

Media Widow

I lived in the crevices of your life,
somewhere between Channel Two
programming, the film academy
and your latest documentary.
Like a gecko, I took on
the colors of your culture,
laid down my protest signs
when you said I was too visible.

I watched and waited
while you pitched at Cannes,
smiled at German producers
hoping to snare some funding
for your next feature.
Like a loyal caryatid
I supported your ideas
and reined in your wildest plans
with tactful hints.

You carefully rationed your time
between me and the camera.
Yet I was content to sit
in the shadow of your screenings.
Last year, I applauded loudly
as you received a lifetime achievement award.
In the audience of the heart,
I deserved a front row seat.

The Beheading of Romina Ashrafi

Can poetry describe such a hateful act?
A rose, asleep, is crushed by dad's cruel maim.
The moon hid the blade, the earth howled the fact.
A storm of teenage love, she needed to be tamed.

Her radiance was darkened, her fragrance turned to dust.
Did love transcend the strictures of belief?
Herlove so forbidden, was the sentence just?
The tongs of tradition steal women like a thief.

Can love not flow freely like the stream?
Allow the graves reopened, their memory restored.
Tell the thousands martyred to live their dream
and a downpour of lilies fall from heaven's door.

If dad permits, girls 13, may wed.
But dad disliked boy's kin, so better to behead.

Testimonials for The World is Full of Pain:

A novelist as well as a poet, the author reveals a gift for narrative detail, and as a film scholar, she shows us an eye for visual portraits. Her new collection is a complex tapestry sprinting across space from Alabama to Cambodia, Iran and Syria. A distinctive voice for our time, these are piercing screams and cries for survival. It should be heard!

-- Dr. Phyllis Saretta, author of Asiatics in middle Egypt Kingdom: Perceptions and Reality

In these carefully crafted poems, the poet covers a variety of landscapes. There is life, love, regret and hope amid history, mythology and contemporary issues. She addresses tough topics head-on without hesitation, drawing the reader into the conflict. Honor killings, trafficking, cruelty to animals and the environment are presented. The language and imagery is rich and vivid allowing the subtleties to emerge into the spotlight. The more personal poems are elegant and honest. She delves deeply into the delicate emotions of love, grief and despair.

Although humans through the centuries became more civilized, the poems in this collection document that although humanity entered the twenty-first century, for many people, but also for animals, life in the present world is a torture.

-- Dr. Miroslav Demajo, Research Biology Professor, active in nature protection