Nicole Asherah, according to her website, wrote A LIFE CYCLE as she was recovering from a sexual assault. She intended it to be a sort of self-help book in verse, building it around the central metaphor of healing. The poems are divided into groups with titles like “The Shattering,” “The Healing,” “Love Shines Through,” and “The Loving.” The first group, oddly, has no title–it is designated on the table of contents with a blank followed by the page number. A few poems have their own titles; most don’t. A few are a page long; most are only a few lines: the shortest is two. There is no introduction or preface, which you usually find in a poetry collection. There are a lot of blank pages, which you usually don’t find. (For sure, the book could have used an editor.)
Poetry is about images, and some of Asherah’s don’t quite hit their mark. In one poem, she writes, “I want to be the sun. / Sometimes I’m able to catch a flame / But I quickly turn to ash, / Like a used match / I crumble under my own weight.” Is that what happens to a match–it crumbles? I’ve never seen little bits of match debris after lighting a candle. In another poem, she describes sunlight as a “soft orange glow gliding hesitantly up the sidewalk.” A glide is a smooth, uninterrupted movement, carefree, confident. This is the opposite of “hesitant.”
Poetry is also about voice, and here is where Asherah’s gifts are on full display. In one poem, she writes, “I have a habit of not truly saying what I mean / But in that people find beauty.” This has a William Carlos Williams quality to it: straightforward, conversational, but with a sharp center. The key word is “beauty.” Many people bite their tongues, and we tend to think of it as a necessary evil, the price of living in a polite society. To go beyond the functional and call it “beautiful” is advanced irony. It’s also a commentary on the way women are exhorted to smile and be charming at all times, which sounds like a little slice of hell. A LIFE CYCLE may or may not be a catalyst to healing, but you won’t be sorry to have spent a few hours with this witty, deeply felt book.
A LIFE CYCLE, Nicole Asherah’s debut book of poems, delivers a satisfying read in spite of some curious imagery and formatting.
~Anthony Aycock for IndieReader