Customer Reviews

Flow Blue

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Sarah Kennedy, Flow Blue (Elixir, 2002)

There can be no doubt that Sarah Kennedy is a fine poet. What keeps me from wholeheartedly recommending this collection, however, is the obsession aspect; when an entire collection pounds away at the same themes over and over and over again, it can get a little oppressive. But taken in small doses, this is fabulous stuff;

"He will never find me, curled here
under the last stalks of the garden. Let's go,
he yells, but I watch the bean-vines
braiding gold corn to tomatoes

and stay silent."
("Grounded")

I suggest getting your hands on a copy of this one and going through it, at most, one or two poems a day, leavening the reading with a number of other collections; this will go down easier. ***

As a reader of poetry, I am struck not only by how well Flow Blue's poems weave themselves together, but how the poems themselves flow one into the next, weaving a dense tapestry of images and stories.

As a reader of fiction, I am struck by just how well these poems narrate the persona's journey from confused adolescence through to womanhood, reflecting back on childhood in a way that is both exotic and familiar. Reading each poem compels the reader to move forward into the next, building a life story in moments.

The persona herself embodies American womanhood in a way that echoes films like Smooth Talk and the end of Lolita, but without arrogance or malice. As she runs [or was she taken] from her strict parent's house at the behest of her sister and into her sister's husband's arms, she turns from a manipulated child to a mother and a woman who carves another life from her own.

I would recommend this book to lovers of poetry, I also think Flow Blue would make a great choice for someone who doesn't think or doesn't know s/he likes poetry. The constructions are strong, and the images are vivid without stretching the mind to grasp them, and the story sets up a strong narrative with accessible language that allows the reader to see the polarity between American beauty and American darkness.