EILEEN TABIOS Engages
NOAH’S BOAT
by CB Follett
(Many Voices
Press, Kalispell, Montana, 2016)
An immense love for animals is evident in CB Follett’s latest
book, NOAH’S BOAT. As I love animals, too, I delight in how Follett’s poetic
skills enhance the love the reader feels for the subject critters. In
particular, I appreciate her imagery: I read this and I saw it!
Bolinas
Lagoon
Out of marsh grass
seemingly empty
the white shawls
rise into air
and fly
That is just perfectly-pitched!
Her drawing out of various significances also add charisma—my
favorite such poem is the slightly ironic (“slightly” because I don’t think
irony was as major a point as the poem’s conclusion) “A Bug Encounters
Nirvana”:
Somewhere in the book, Follett concedes to the flaws of
anthropomorphization. But she does it so lightly in "A Cloud of Grasshoppers" and the last
stanza is so charming that I, for one, still delighted in this poem:
There are many gems in this book, but I would cite “Noah Throws
In the Hammer” as the collection’s tour de force, and not just for explaining
why unicorns no longer exist (“distracted by spring / and missed the boat”).
The poem provides a needed reminder of human footprints on earth, and how our
acts endanger the animals:
Somewhere in the future we’ll give up
cows because with their four legs
and grass-devouring mouths they take up
too much room where we stand
thigh to thigh on barren ground
awaiting the last trumpet, though who
has any breath left to blow it,
with all their lungs sucking in oxygen,
no longer able to give out carbon dioxide
because what, after all, is left to use it.
Love animals? Let’s behave accordingly. Meanwhile, NOAH’S BOAT provides a satisfying
read.
*****
Eileen Tabios does not let her books be reviewed by Galatea Resurrects because she's its editor (the exception would be books that focus on other poets as well). She is pleased, though, to point you elsewhere to recent reviews of her work: THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS was reviewed by Joey Madia for New Mystics Reviews, Book Masons and Literary Aficionado; and EXCAVATING THE FILIPINO IN ME was reviewed by Aileen Ibardaloza for "Filipina American Literature: Reading Recommendations" (Barbara Jane Reyes Blog). She released three books and two chaps in 2016, and is scheduled to release at least three publications in 2017. More info at http://eileenrtabios.com
*****
Eileen Tabios does not let her books be reviewed by Galatea Resurrects because she's its editor (the exception would be books that focus on other poets as well). She is pleased, though, to point you elsewhere to recent reviews of her work: THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS was reviewed by Joey Madia for New Mystics Reviews, Book Masons and Literary Aficionado; and EXCAVATING THE FILIPINO IN ME was reviewed by Aileen Ibardaloza for "Filipina American Literature: Reading Recommendations" (Barbara Jane Reyes Blog). She released three books and two chaps in 2016, and is scheduled to release at least three publications in 2017. More info at http://eileenrtabios.com
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