by Nicole Yurcaba
Many adjectives could apply to yet another forthcoming gem from Lanternfish Press, including “magical,” “surreal,” and “ethereal.” In Fran Wilde’s otherworldly poetry collection Clock Star Rose Spine (Lanternfish Press, 2021), readers travel terrestrial and otherworldly terrains where perceptions of the self, the world, and everything in between change with each reading. In this collection, Wilde’s poems are not just poems; they are experiences documented in words and in art, creating a dual experience that each reader can make their own. Elegant and detailed ink sketches bring to life compasses, lunar landscapes, maps to newly discovered places, and flora and fauna holding the keys to verses sure to take readers on new adventures within themselves.
Clock Star Rose Spine holds many gems, and the collection is a treasure chest brimming with poetic delights. In the haunting poem “Self Portrait with Frida Khalo,” readers encounter a reckoning of the self: “Does a body earn its place beside you, in your life’s work, / stilled, while the mirror’s face shifts.” Its examinations of what aspects of ourselves we reveal to others and how those revelations influence others’ perceptions of us ring clearly: “I’m so good at concealing everything, while you / rend yourself with paint, frame yourself / with hard edges?”
Similarly, in the poem “My Daughter Takes Up Sewing,” the act of sewing becomes metaphorical for the shaping of the self, and a narrator’s reflections reveal the immense, transformative power that lies in embracing female legacies: “How my grandmother sewed until her eyes went / and my mother stitched late at night.” The introspective journey continues as the poem “Self Portrait as Selkie” positively flips negative historical tropes often associated with the mythology of the selkie by examining the selflessness involved in giving ourselves to others: “If I could peel my skin back / and have you still love me then / I would do it over / and over again.”
Wilde’s collection invites readers to grab a cup of hot tea and sit for a while, curled beneath the comfort of its poetic blanket. Stylistically and artistically, Clock Star Rose Spine joins the ranks of the notable poetry collection Elephant Water by former Atlanta Review editor and 2013 Georgia Writer Association’s Author of the Year, Dan Veach. The ink sketches throughout the collection ask readers to pause and mediate, while the poems invite readers to take another philosophical pause. Readers will leave this collection refreshed, vitalized, and asking for more and more of Wilde’s work.
Nicole Yurcaba (Ukrainian: Нікола Юрцаба) is a Ukrainian-American poet and essayist. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Atlanta Review, The Lindenwood Review, Whiskey Island, Raven Chronicles, Appalachian Heritage, North of Oxford, and many other online and print journals. Nicole holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University, is the recipient of a July 2020 Writing Residency at Gullkistan, Creative Center for the Arts in Iceland, and is a Tupelo Press June 2020 30 for 30 featured poet. Her poetry collection Triskaidekaphobia is forthcoming Black Spring Group in 2022. She teaches poetry workshops for Southern New Hampshire University and works as a career counselor for Blue Ridge Community College.
