| Title | : | Solecism |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0944048501 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780944048504 |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 80 |
| Publication | : | First published February 28, 2013 |
Solecism is the nonstandard or ungrammatical usage, a breach in etiquette, or any error, impropriety or inconsistency; these poems, according to Alexander Long, “confront the darker side of multi-culturalism, the vertiginous disorientation of being neither this nor that, neither here nor there, essentially being exiled in her own homelands. “ Gritty yet lyrical, Kamilah Aisha Moon says “these brazen, keen explorations are lit by intriguing desires that mirror and unearth our own, fueled by a deft imagination and wielding of language that rings deeply true. The world needs these tough angel anthems.”
Drawing upon the author’s Jewish, Middle Eastern and Mexican heritage, Stephan Delbos remarks: “Her poetry is aware of the world's urgencies, and, troubled, engages them in a barbed dream-language of vengeful longing, a language as fragmented as our world, achieving a startled and startling wholeness from the vivid pieces.” Andre Yang observes: “There is a great fierceness in these poems that is balanced with just the right amount of tenderness” In this stunning debut, as Marian Haddad claims, “Ben-Oni is the dark bird— that sparrow, singing.”
Solecism Reviews
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I don't read a whole lot of poetry to be honest. But in this case, what a beautiful, lush book of poetry. Rosebud Ben-Oni creates mini-worlds in every poem that split apart boundaries, ethnicities, and borders, and at the same time transcend them. The lines resonates as in these from Shoal:
"Tonight you die quiet and sudden in a dream,
God staggering through the Galapagos,
pinning the birds like brooches
as they twitter his nerves,
all that you knew
to be untrue
intangible as the blue base of a flame"
The best poetry for me aren't just pretty sets of words, but a construction, a creation that actually takes you some place, like a song crafted into a structure of sorts. Almost all the poems in Solecism do exactly that, challenging, prodding, pushing. Lives of Carrion illustrates this:
"I fear the day we reap
the hour in being forgotten,
seek warmth from the ones
who take it away. Tomorrow he'll find us
and rip apart the henhouse. You say the cripple
who coaxes errant vines up the trelis
once led a tank battle in these fields.
For now all is quiet in the North
I let her bite once more
A nudge of teeth and spittle-blood."
Solecism is a grammatical term for a word that's used in an untraditional or nonstandard way. Rosebud's poetry is brimming with thematic solecisms, words and ideas that may be untraditional in their use, but recall all the most important emotions and passions we share in the most eloquent ways. -
So great; must compile my thoughts about this one!!
I should mention this for sure: Rosebud is easily one of my favorite poets right now! -
This collection of poems defies description, but is especially beautiful for its identifying the liminal places in our own identities. I was taken aback by its masterful use of description (Ben-Oni is a Jedi master of language) and the way I felt while I was reading these poems. Well worth the purchase price, Solecism is a good gift for people who don't fit into anyone's cultural binary choice of "either/or".
-
Review by
Eleanor Ehrenkranz for the
Jewish Book Council.
