Poetry is a medium that’s often visceral, but the poems of If the Girl Never Learns are truly intimate in their rawness. If you’re looking to escape your reality, this book will certainly transport you – though where you end up may be much more severe than expected. While the poems can at times express hopelessness, rage and what feels like a long held grudge, there is a resilience in these words that very much feels like a reclamation of power – a reversal of every wrong done. At so many points one wonders, ‘Did this really happen? Or is this just a story?‘
Does a story sound like this?
The girl’s
smile is a last carousel ride,
wood horses distorted
in mirrors. She’d translate
her body back into its own
language, if only she could.
Sue William Silverman weaves a detailed fabric of words, slicing it through with imagery and detail that’s meant to cut to the core. Gorgeous and disturbing at once, these poems pierce the imagination with truth – that painful and empowering thing we all want until we actually get it.
Purchase your copy from Brick Mantel Books.