FIRST LITERARY REVIEW-EAST

Submissions Meet the Editor-in-Chief January 2018 March 2019 May/June 2021 Meet the Associate Editor July 2021 November 2019 January/February 2019 Book Review - Lyn Lifshin's "Ballroom" March 2020 September 2021 May 2020 Book Review: Amy Holman's Wrens Fly Through This Opened Window July/August 2018 Book Review: Kit Kennedy Reviews Heller Levinson September 2012 Book Review - Patricia Carragon Reviews Leigh Harrison November 2012 January 2020 March/April 2022 Book Review - Dean Kostos "Rivering" May 2013 Book Review: Hochman Reviews Ormerod Summer Issue 2013 September 2020 November/December 2018 McMaster Reviews Szporluk July/August 2014 November 2014 Book Review: Wright Reviews Gardner Stern Reviews Katrinka Moore May 2015 Hochman Reviews Ross July 2020 Tocco Reviews Simone September 2015 Simone Reviews Cefola May 2016 Bledsoe Reviews Wallace November 2016 January 2017 May 2017 Wehrman Reviews Dhar July 2017 September 2023 March 2018 May 2019 July 2019 September 2019 November 2023 March 2021 November 2021 WINTER 2022 Hochman Reviews Metras May 2022 November/December 2022 January/February 2023 March/April 2023 May 2023 July 2023

APRIL 2015

 

 

Book Review: Numa, by Katrinka Moore

(Aqueduct Press, 2014)

ISBN-10: 1619760576

ISBN-13: 978-1619760578

 

Reviewed by Sarah Stern

 

 

In Katrinka Moore’s Numa, we meet a shape-shifting creature, who’s described as,

 

a small body

within the open    world / unlatched

 

a perfect example of Moore’s original way of not only describing this mesmerizing being, who will stay with you long after you’ve finished this epic poem, but of the way she is able to conjure up so much in so few words. In a way, Numa is the story of all of us, no matter who we are. That’s the brilliance here. Adding to this, there are beautiful, thought-provoking photo collages to accompany your journey, which adds a whole other layer of meaning to this unique collection.

 

Numa, the creature, is also wonderfully playful. At times, you want to somehow cuddle up with her/him/it too. How many poetry books elicit that response? In “Shifts,” Numa is a bear who:

 

licks her fur / visceral

sediment / licks away

muck & bile / pulls

apart sticky clumps

of hair / now

 

sound / springs up

sanguine / hopeful /

hungry

 

girlchild raccoon nibbles

dew-& raspberries / rises

on hind legs / paw-

hands grabbing / this

delicious life / this

summer

 

It’s fascinating to see how, in so many of the poems, the words actually dance across the page. Moore’s line breaks, again and again, work their magic. They work so well, you barely know how you got there, as in the second “Shifts.” By the end, you are with Numa,

 

                        / still

in the whirling

 

A former dancer and choreographer, Moore manages to incorporate dance into her poetry. The movements are delicate, bold and striking, all at the same time.

 

There are many examples of these leaps, but “First Light” is one of my favorites.

 

bloom-red furrow oozes

between blue-black

sky & ash-grey

ridge / widens

warms / opens

the world / an old

old woman wakes

(again) lifts her face

 

Another gift of this book is Moore’s descriptions of the natural world. Again, with six words, she creates a vision that holds fast. In “Careens,” Numa moves through

 

The dark light of the woods.

  

There are also the hard truths of this life in this collection. We cheer for Numa because that’s all we can do in the face of what she encounters. And true to life, we go on.

 

 “Rises” ends this way:

Numa

calls / concocts her

self (each cell burns) gathers rind and bone

 

she calls / corrals / becomes / begins again

 

We do, too, richer and more fully alive, for having met her.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katrinka Moore is the author of Numa (Aqueduct Press, 2014), Thief (BlazeVOX, 2009), and This is Not a Story (Finishing Line Press, 2003), which won the New Women’s Voices Prize. Recent work is in online journals Otoliths, MungBeing, First Literary Review-East, and Dépositions, le blog.

 

Sarah Stern is the author of But Today Is Different (Wipf and Stock, 2014) and Another Word for Love (Finishing Line Press, 2011). She is a four-time winner of the Bronx Council on the Arts' Poetry Award.  She lives in New York City and is a senior associate at the EastWest Institute. Visit her at sarahstern.me.

 


 

I