In HYPNOTIZED BY MY HEART ONLY TO BE AWAKEN BY TRUTH, Wesley J. has fully leaned into vulnerability, pain, and loss. In this collection of thirty poems, the author traces the deep impact of romance-related sorrow. Each poem asserts the grief and ache of absence that author Wesley J. endures, attempting a claustrophobic revisitation of heartbreak through memory, confession, and vulnerability. His attempt at sharing his experiences with anyone else going through the same is reflected honestly in this deeply personal collection of poems.
Though thematically related, this collection lacks an arc and structure. The works oscillate between vague confessions of love, heartbreak, and memory without offering any emotional progression; each poem resonates with the same tone of bereavement. Also, the poetry itself lacks rhythm and voice. Deeply personal emotions are explored, but, without the specific imagery or details to anchor the feeling it aims to evoke, the book reads more like a series of journal entries. For example, these lines from “Crashed”: "Strands of your hair still on my pillow / Reminds me of your head laying on my chest / Silk sheets you say you love me, / Like many times before.” Wesley J. completely fails to anchor this memory in specific details of the image, as the vague language prevents the poetry from lingering.
Meanwhile, the poetry lacks sonic texture, the enjambments are random, the line breaks lack rhythm, and the rhyming sounds forced. There are awkward word choices that can confuse readers, as in the poem “Naked Love”: “Your penetration has infected my defenses / My soul has been reborn / Absorbing you was all I desired […]." The word choice is awkward, and it can leave readers wondering if they are reading an erotic reminiscence of an intimate memory or a vulnerable confession of love.
In addition, many grammatical mistakes and a lack of editorial polish dull the reading experience. Form is not the only aesthetic in poetry, but punctuation can sometimes make up for it. Unfortunately, this collection is inconsistent on that front; some lines are heavily punctuated, and some don't even have a comma. These stylistic choices, if used with purpose and control, can add to the sonic quality of poetry—but they don't in this collection. This manuscript needs a few more rounds of editorial polish to improve its readability, as well as its structural weaknesses.
Despite its emotional honesty, Wesley J.'s HYPNOTIZED BY MY HEART ONLY TO BE AWAKEN BY TRUTH fails to impress the reader because of its structural and thematic setbacks.
~ Maria Zafar for IndieReader