Laurel Johnson Book Review "Wake Wake Wake"

Wake Wke Wake

by Valerie Nieman

Wake Wake Wake
poetry by Valerie Nieman
ISBN 0-9772283-5-5
100 pages at $14.00 US / $20.00 CAN
Press 53
P.O. Box 30314
Winston-Salem NC 27130

Words used by critics and peers to describe Valerie Nieman's poetry include intelligent, gorgeous, rapturous, and shattering. I second those praise words for this award winning poet and novelist, and will add a few of my own.

In "First Generation," for example, she remembers forebearers whose lives continue to impact her own. I quote only one verse of this touching poem:

Your eyes have become paler blue, and I would want to say the color of March sky, thin lines on paper, or lilac petals, faded. They measure out this distance between us, the rivers and the days, and mark out the unseasonable shadows that sharpen along the road home.

In this excerpt from "Above Dunkard Mill Run" we see and feel the gathering storm outside while anchored safely inside the farmhouse:

Every farmhouse rides at anchor in a phosphorescent harbor of sodium vapor lights; every cargoed barn waits for the tide-turn. Our roofline is long, square as an ark, and we rise prow-high against the swells, sailing into dark fields on this late warm wind.

"A Moment's Peace" is one of those memorable poems so powerful in its simplicity it stays in the reader's spirit, haunting. From the mind of a miner dying of black lung, we share his existence, moment by moment, as he contemplates life and death:

Not that she's not the finest woman a man could have, you understand, as steady as the chestnut beamsthat hold up this house, heart solid like good oak. But for months I've been waiting to slip away, waiting on a time her heartbeat and breath didn't fill all the house and hold my life to my ribs. A moment's peace so that like a scarred old tomcat I could slip away and die without grief.

Nieman's work is elemental and visceral. Here, the deeper meanings of death and life, past and present, joy and sorrow fuse seamlessly. Whether speaking in her voice or giving voice to others, her poetry is exceptional and highly recommended.

review by Laurel Johnson