“Today is World Bee Day,” writes author J.A. Carter-Winward in the introduction to her newest book, IF IT STINGS, a collection of narrative poetry inspired by the splendor–and struggle–of her rural Utah home (her novel Wade won the 2021 Indie Reader Discovery Award). Bees, of course, are vital to the ecosystem. Without them, in the words of one expert, “our gardens would be bare and our plates empty.” Many people don’t understand this reality, however, which gives Carter-Winward her impetus for these straightforward yet haunting verses.

Carter-Winward’s poems touch on a number of themes–addiction, Mormonism, east versus west, social isolation, family illness, family disintegration. Her ex-husband is a recurring figure akin to the Dark Lady in Shakespeare’s sonnets. Her tone is ironic but not contemptuous, and she combines a fascination with the natural world along with recognition of its inherent brutality. For instance, “It’s About the Yellowjackets” takes as its premise a front porch covered in yellowjacket carcasses. “Their bodies curve / into ‘C’ shapes,” she writes, “Their wings / nowhere to be found.” It’s a simple yet sobering image. Then she notes that the insects’ C-shaped bodies “curl away from each / other as if, in the end, / the silent treatment / was all the sting / either of them had left.” This is excellent on multiple levels. Separating the phrase “each other” into different lines illustrates the loneliness that can infest relationships. Moverover, the damaging nature of silence is another recurring theme throughout these poems. In fact, it turns up in the very next one, “This Is Your Brain on Pain,” in these dreadful lines: “When you finally realize / hey, this is my brain on pain, the / rest of the world looks at you like you’re a / “disturbed old woman,” and they ask you / things like, why aren’t you dead yet?”

Carter-Winward’s behind-the-veil looks at nature, and the imagination with which she extrapolates natural conflicts to human ones, recalls the poetry of Robert Frost, especially his lines “What but design of darkness to appall? / If design govern in a thing so small.” Her voice is occasionally too informal–subjects like pain and life and death demand gravitas–but her imagery and verbal inventiveness provide a nice counterweight. “I’m not entirely sure poetry will save bees,” she admits. One thing is clear, however: if it could, her verses would be up to the job.

J.A. Carter-Winward’s visceral and clever collection of narrative poetry, IF IT STINGS, peels back social facades to expose the hurt beneath.

~Anthony Aycock for IndieReader