Poetry Review: 44 POEMS ON BEING WITH EACH OTHER + My National Poetry Month 2025 Wrap-Up

Today marks the last day of April and the last day of National Poetry Month for another year. I read eleven books and found some delightful new-to-me poems and poets.

I reviewed almost all the books with the exception of 44 Poems on Being With Each Other, which I finished last night, and With My Back to the World by Chang, which I inadvertently missed. See the 44 Poems review below on this page.

Reviews: 

• Make Me Rain: Poems and Prose by Nikki Giovanni. 2020. My rating- 4.25 stars.
• The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal edited by James Crews. 2023. 4.5 stars
• 44 Poems on Being With Each Other by Padraig O Tuama. 2025. 5 stars. See review below.
• Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renee Watson. 2024. 5 stars.
• For Every One by Jason Reynolds. 2018. 5 stars.
• With My Back to the World: Poems by Victoria Chang. 2024. 4 stars.
• How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope edited by James Crews. 2021. 5 stars.
• What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer. 2020. 4.25 stars.
• Grace Notes: Poems About Families by Naomi Shihab Nye. 2024. 5 stars.
• A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje. 2024. 3 stars.
• Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong. 2022. 2.5 stars

Other posts about poetry:

• TTT: Favorite Poetry Books Reviewed in the Past Two Years (not inclusive of those in the above list)
• TTT: Excerpts of New-to-Me Poems and a few other thoughts/reflections on poetry.

A few more new-to-me poems and poets I discovered this month. Links to the Poetry Foundation.

• Poems:
• "Waiting for the Barbarians" by C.F. Cavafy
• "A Word on Statistics" by Wislawa Szymborska
• "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, Pt. 1" by Joy Harjo
• "At the Student Poetry Reading" by Kim Stafford
• Poets:
• Dorianne Laux
• Nikki Giovanni

Review: 44 Poems on Being With Each Other by Pádraig Ó Tuama.

Years ago I discovered Roger Housden's 'Ten Poems' series. In these small books, Housden highlighted ten poems only but for each his commentary opened up the poems for me. After reading Ten Poems to Change Your Life I went on a ten-poems reading frenzy, seeking out all the volumes in the set, like my life depended on it. For the first time in my life I was holding the keys in my hand of how to read poetry. A few years later I found two volumes of poetry curated by Edward Hirsch, The Heart of American Poetry and 100 Poems to Break Your Heart.  Hirsch added commentary to each poem which helped me understand and appreciate them. In addition, I was introduced to a plethora of poets and their works, another bonus. Pádraig Ó Tuama did the same thing here with 44 Poems On Being With Each Other as Housden and Hirsch did -- selecting a few poems to highlight with added insightful commentary or an enriching meditation.

Using just one poem as an example, I'll show you the pattern for each of the 44 poems.

Pádraig Ó Tuama begins each poem with a small personal note about himself. For this poem his note is about his unhappy childhood and how it is hard to break out of the flawed pattern of thinking when things go wrong he is to blame. "What helps?" he asks. "Many thing: friends, humour, learning, support. What also helps? The daring act of making: a poem, a change, a surprising sound of a new language where old language fails. Discovering a poem." His personal note always relates to the upcoming poem.

"How the Dung Beetle Finds Its Way Home" by Eugenia Leigh begins with a description of a dung beetle rolling his ball of shit home, navigating by "the Milky Way's glinting ribbon." It goes on to explain how even a little shade from a hat can confuse the little guy so he cannot get home. At this point I'm wondering if this is a nature poem about dung beetles and if I really care. In the next stanza there is a swerve, however, when suddenly I begin to wonder if the poet is talking about their own life. "See? I want to tell my missing father, it's a metaphor so simple // it's almost not worth writing down: even beetles need the stars / to nudge them back to where they need to be / when they need to be there.." Hmm. This is definitely not about beetles, but about parents and, as we learn in the next stanza, bad parents. Children of bad parents often worry that they, too, will become bad parents. The poet does just that, abandoning her family for a very short time -- "I sat on the stairwell leading up to the roof and wept / until a large bug threatened my life, at which point I recalled / the dung beetles, stopped blaming my parents, and - / thinking of metaphorical stars - I rolled up my pile of shit / and trudged back home."

This poem delighted me on many levels probably all related to saying "shit" and not getting in trouble for it. Ó Tuama began his commentary with this laugh-out-loud sentence, "I've spent more time learning about shit-rolling insects than I ever thought I would." One should be able to read a poem without too much research, but in this case, it did seem like a big temptation.

Apparently Ó Tuama also did some research about or just knows the poet. Looking across her work, Leigh details aspects of her mother's abusive behavior and her own PTSD around that. She also lives with bipolar disorder which sometimes leads to manic episodes. One wouldn't usually know any of this, but Ó Tuama brings that insight with his commentary and then adds this about the poem, "The humour, the delight, the natural wonder of the beetle who can navigate its way home is the plain telling of a truth addressed to own parents: don't treat your children like shit; if even a beetle can provide for its family, so can you." Honestly folks, I am a bet thick. I needed Ó Tuama's help to fully understand this.

The rest of the commentary, two more pages, reads a little like a counseling session where Ó Tuama is psychologist. He identifies the poet's relationship with friends who want to know where she went when she abandoned her family. Ó Tuama says, "I'm moved by the storytelling and the friendships, the exchanges of humour and confession that underpin the health of the poem and the poet's constellation of community." Using the Milky Way himself to make his point. :)

This was just one poem, multiply it by 44 and you have this complete, wonderful volume of poems! All of the poems were selected because they, in some regard, have to do with human connections. It is a timely publication since so many people are living more and more isolated lives these days. Poetry to the rescue.

Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet, writer, theologian and conflict resolution mediator. He is a teacher and a former leader of the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland, a peace and reconciliation organization. He also hosts a Poetry Unbound podcast. He is known for his engaging style of teaching and mentoring, using poetry as a tool for understanding the human condition and promoting reconciliation. His resume makes him perfectly suited to add commentary and bring a depth of understanding to poems.

My rating: 5 stars.

-Anne

TTT: A Strange Collection of Books -- All have the word WORLD somewhere in the title

Host: That Artsy Reader Girl

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with WORLD in the title

This is a strange collection of books. The only two things they have in common: 1. They all have WORLD in the title and 2. I've read and liked them.

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Wild Maps for Curious Minds: 100 New Ways to see the Natural World by Mike Higgins

How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope edited by James Crews

Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr

Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World by Rob Sheffield

Spooked!: How a Radio Broadcast and "The War of the Worlds" Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America by Gail Jarrow (I just realized I've never actually read The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, just a book about the reaction to its radio broadcast.)

I told you this list was made up of unrelated books. 

How'd I do finding such different books with WORLD in the title?

-Anne

Poetry Review: MAKE ME RAIN

Make Me Rain: Poetry and Prose is the first adult poetry book I've read by the renowned poet, Nikki Giovanni and the last poetry book she published before her death in 2024. And I must admit I feel rather sheepish admitting that I've only just discovered this poet since she has been famous, in a way most poets aren't, for a long time.

Make Me Rain was published in 2020 and I'm not sure if some of the poems were in response to the Black Lives Matter  movement that year or just a reaction to injustice in general. The poem "And So It Comes to This" starts: Painful words / Nasty comments /Always in groups / Never Just by yourself / Teaching your sons to hate / And your daughters to fear ... and concludes: The only thing you have to offer / Anything.. yourself...Planet Earth / Anything at all. / Is / Your white skin // How sad. How sad. Clearly Giovanni is burning with righteous anger. Poetry provides a perfect medium for the expression of this anger.

The whole collection didn't simmer over with anger or disgust, however. Many of the poems were lighthearted and about everyday events. Others take a poke at politics/politicians. In "Rainy Days" the poet says she called for sun with no luck, ask a friend to do the same but the sun didn't answer, so I opened a bottle of Champagne / and the fruit flies / surrounded the top // Lord Lord // donald trump / must be president  Notice the lack of capital letters for his name or title. Quite in keeping with her feelings about no sun and fruit flies.

The poem "Biography" is short but sums up her life and what she hopes her life stood for -- I'm also lucky / to had awards and daydreams / or is that / Daydreams / And Awards / And I'm lucky to be happy / At what I do / And how I do it / So that is this / Bio / I'm here / And if I mist/ On emotional soil / A weed will / Grow // Make Me Rain // Let me be a part / of needed change

Giovanni self-published her first two volumes of poetry in 1968. During this time she became well-known in Black Arts Movement, influenced by the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1970s she also began writing Children's literature and started her own publishing company, NikTom, to provide publishing opportunities for women of color. Over the decades her works often discussed social issues and human relationships, even Hip-Hop. She won numerous awards, including the NAACP Image Award seven times, and was given 27 honorary degrees. She taught at several universities, ending her teaching career at Virginia Tech in 2022. She even has a bat,Micronycteris giovanniae named for her. She died in 2024 after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. She was 81 years old. I'd say, looking back at her poem "Biography" she indeed played a part in changing America, perhaps the world, for the better. 

I understand that a volume of Giovanni poetry, titled The New Book: Poems, Letter, Blurbs, and Things, will be published posthumously in September this year. I will be the first in line at the library to check out a copy of it.

-Anne

Review: MARTYR! (+Book Club Discussion Questions)

Title: Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 

Book Beginnings quote:

Friday56 quote:

Summary:

Martyr! follows Cyrus Shams, a young man born in Persia who was brought to the United States by his father when he was a baby. Cyrus, who lost his mother soon after birth when the plane she was on was accidentally shot down over the Persian Gulf on its way to Dubai, has struggled with depression, insomnia, and addiction his whole life. He has also been haunted by the death of his mother and forced to cope with his father's death, too, as well as racism — and feelings of grief, uselessness, and alienation. Cyrus is a poet, and his obsession with death and martyrs forces him to delve deep into what it means to die, his family's history, the lives of several historical figures (NPR).

Review: From the summary one would think, possibly rightly, that Martyr! is too dark of a book to tackle during these dark times. But what the summary doesn't say is how surprisingly funny the book is at times and ultimately how we all want the same thing -- for our life to matter.

Cyrus is a depressed young man who by young adulthood has lost both his parents and is living in a country, the United States, where he is outsider and has to constantly cope with otherness. Yet there is an almost pathological politeness to his life, an "intersection of Iranian-ness and Midwestern-ness" which forces him to put up with awful racist comments and to constantly perform "an elaborate and almost entirely unspoken choreography of etiquette" that Iranians call taarof.

Martyr! is told from the point-of-view of several different narrators. The most prominent of the narrators is Cyrus --who talks about his past, his relationships, his addictions, and his fascinations with martyrs -- but there are chapters narrated by his mother, his father, a friends, and his uncle -- who played a role during the Iranian-Iraqi war, riding a horse, pretending to be an angel, reminding soldiers that their deaths won't be in vain that they will be martyrs for the cause. The book's plot is so multi-layered and cast of characters all so three-dimensional it practically sparkled with life and energy. Martyr! was one of the top books of 2024 for good reasons:

It celebrates language while delving deep into human darkness. It entertains while jumping around in time and space and between the real and the surreal like a fever dream. It brilliantly explores addiction, grief, guilt, sexuality, racism, martyrdom, biculturalism, the compulsion to create something that matters, and our endless quest for purpose in a world that can often be cruel and uncaring (NPR).

I loved the book but knew going to my book club meeting I would likely be in a minority. I was right. No one else liked the book but me. This is what Greg at "Supposedly Fun" calls a "cilantro book" -- you hate it or love it. (I often wonder if my experience with the audiobook enhanced my reading pleasure. I was the only one who listened to the book rather than reading the print version.) I appreciated Akbar's poetic writing, the dream-sequences -- which were the funniest parts to me--, the interrelated stories, and the touch of magical realism. Others couldn't stand the book. They felt the main character, Cyrus, was too awful and obsessed with death to feel any empathy for him. One gal had done some reading online and discovered that others think the ending was actually about Cyrus's death. Whereas I think the ending is about Cyrus waking up to love and a new life. It sparkled brightly in the most fantastical manner. I was blown away by it. 

My rating: 5 stars.

Martyr! Book Club Discussion Questions

(Help yourself. If you haven't read the book, there are spoilers in some of the questions!)

1. Reviewers are in agreement that Martyr! is a polarizing book. What did you like/not like about the book?

2. Martyr! is the first book I remember that has an exclamation mark after the title. Why do you think the author/publisher added it? How does its presence inform the reader about the theme?

3. Talk about martyrdom in Iranian culture and literature. Is this still being played out today?

4. Cyrus's mother dies in a a plane crash before he was old enough to remember her. In what ways was this event the central event of his life? How could his father have handled things differently?

5. One of the prominent themes of Martyr! is grief. How was grief played out in the different characters lives? Do you think there is such a thing as generational grief? If so, how was it manifested in the story?

6. What are your thoughts on each of the main characters: Cyrus Shams, Ali Shams, Roya Shams/Orkideh, Zee, Cyrus's uncle. Here are some questions to get the discussion rolling if your group needs a prompt:

• Explain Cyrus's fascination with martyrdom and with making his life amount to something.
• Why did Ali move his young son to America, after what happened with Roya's plane be shot out of the sky? How could he stand working on the egg farm for so long?
• Why do you think Roya left her young son to run off with Layla? How did she feel about motherhood?
• Cyrus's uncle played the role of an angel sent to bolster the lives of dying soldiers. How did this impact him? Why would a military assign such a role to a soldier?
• Zee seemed like the most content character in the book. What did you think of him? How did you feel about his and Cyrus's relationship?

7. Talk about Cyrus's addiction and his recovery. What did you think about his relationship with his AA sponsor Gabe?  

8. What did you think about Orkideh sitting in an art museum as she was dying from breast cancer? Why do you think she ended her life before revealing who she was to Cyrus? Were you surprised by the revelation?

9. Share a favorite quote or react to those I've provided. Search for more quotes here:

• “The only people who speak in certainties are zealots and tyrants.”
• “Do you have this organ here?” Cyrus asked her, pointing at the base of his throat. “A doom organ that just pulses all the time? Pulses dread, every day, obstinately? Like it thinks there’s a panther behind the curtain ready to maul you, but there’s no panther and it turns out there’s no curtain either? That’s what I wanted to stop.”
• “Love was a room that appeared when you stepped into it.”

10. Process the ending together. What do you think happened?

11. Martyr! was on a lot of the 2024 Best Books lists this past year. It was a finalists for the National Book Award for fiction that year. What do you think of the writing? Do you think this book deserves to receive book awards or not?

-Anne

TTT: Surprised How Much I Liked These Books

Top Ten Tuesday: Surprised by how much I liked these books 

1. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky --- It shouldn't have surprised me since this classic novel is at the top of most lists of best book lists but I was shocked by how much I liked this book.

2. The Wedding People by Alison Espach -- I don't usually go in for romance novels. I was genuinely surprised by the plot and how much I cared for the characters. A strong woman emerged from a beaten down one.

3. The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown -- I like Sci-fi in small doses so it surprised me how much I liked this sci-fi thriller. I didn't want to put the books down and it had felt like ages since I'd felt that way about a book.

4. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf -- Why does it shock me when classics are just that, classic!

5. Shakespeare: The Man Who Paid the Rent by Judi Dench -- I expected to "like" this book but I wasn't expecting to be bowled over by it. An actress talking about her craft does not sound that thrilling, but it was a joy from start to finish.

6. James by Percival Everett -- Best book of 2024, hands down! I laughed. I cried. I got super angry. And I've been talking about it ever since.

7. Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshanathan -- The winner of the Winner's Prize in 2024, about the war in Sri Lanka. I don't generally like war books but this book was on another plane, simply mesmerizing.

8. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara -- Another war book, this one about the Battle of Gettysburg during the US Civil War. This novelization of an actual event really brought the real characters and action alive.

9. Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See -- I have liked everything I've read by this author so I am not sure why my expectations were low for this book which not was simply a fantastic story but shed light on women in medicine in ancient China. So interesting.

10. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer -- a book about Indigenous practices regarding nature, harvesting practices, and plants. Doesn't sound like the type of book which would land on a list like this, but it is nothing short of phenomenal. (I read the YA version.)

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- Easter Week and before

Happy Easter!

Weather: It has been a lovely week with blue skies and warm-ish temperatures. Today (Saturday) is supposed to be the transition day and tomorrow, Easter, it is supposed to rain. No outdoors Easter Egg hunt for us.

Trolls: Two weeks ago was our daughter's spring break. She is a teacher but had no plans for a big vacation so she decided to have her family search out the NW Trolls: Way of the Bird King on daily excursions to sites nearby. My husband and I tagged along for the fun. We found three of the six: The Bird King (on Vashon Island); Bruun Idun (in West Seattle); and Jakob Two Trees (on the Rainier Trail in Issaquah). What fun. Now we all want to finish the search and find the ones hiding on Bainbridge Island, in Ballard, and south in Portland, Oregon. Aren't they marvelous?

Blossoms: I'm still out hunting for flowering tree blossoms. These (collage above) are the ones I've found since my last Sunday post. I was eavesdropping on a woman at the nail salon yesterday who recently moved to Washington and she was gushing about all the beautiful trees in bloom this time of year. I agree.

12 pages a day: I want to read more classics. So I am attempting to follow a tip from Tristan and the Classics (YouTube): He suggests that we read just 12 pages of a classic novel per day. Just 12 pages. Then stop and get on with the day. Read other books, live life. At 12 pages a day that totals up to 4380 pages a year. In the video Tristan holds up a large pile of classic novels he and his group read last year poking along at that slow pace. It was an impressive pile. I'm determined to give this a try and started my 12 pages a day commitment with David Copperfield. I'm half way through the book and I have not felt burdened a single day by it. Twelve pages just breezes by, often I have to purposefully stop myself from reading on. (On occasion I have read on, but only a few pages to get to a good stopping point or a chapter break.) I'm pretty excited about this. After scurrying around the house I found quite a few classic books languishing around on dusty bookshelves. Totaling up their pages I will be able to complete nine of them before years end...and I'm getting a late start on the year. Long dense classics no longer scare me. I'm already eyeing Anna Karenina if I can manage the tiny print in the paperback I own! Up to this point (over 50 years!) I've been too scared to try.

Can you see the bees? The tree was so full of them it sounded alive with buzzing.

Easter: After church we will be having a family dinner and Easter Egg hunt with our grandsons. Don is going to BBQ lamb. I will attempt to make hot cross buns and risotto. One daughter is bringing asparagus and the other is making a Tres Leches cake. We will feast and enjoy each other's company all the while remembering the reason for the day -- to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

Our grandsons showing us their Palm Sunday donkeys

Saying goodbye to friends: Today and last Saturday Don and I attended two funerals. It is hard to say goodbye to friends but also an opportunity to learn more about that person. I found both events to be less emotional than I thought they'd be. But both were illuminating because I knew each of of my friends in one context and it was fun to learn about other aspects of their lives.

 

Blog posts from the last two weeks: (Can you tell it is National Poetry Month?)

• TTT: Favorite Poetry Books I've Reviewed In the Last Two Years
• Poetry Review: Grace Notes
• Review: Bel Canto
• Two Not-for-Me Poetry Books
• TTT: Excerpts from New-to-Me Poems
• Poetry Reviews: How to Love the World/The Wonder of Small Things
• Nonfiction review: Everything is Tuberculosis
• Two Short Poetry Reviews: Black Girl You Are Atlas and For Every One

Books:

• Completed:
• Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green
• A Year of Last Things: Poems by Michael Ondaatje 
• Black Girl You are Atlas by Renee Watson
• For Every One by Jason Reynolds
• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
• The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal edited by James Crews
• Currently reading:
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. 50% complete. Print.
• When I Was Puerto Rican: Memoir by Esmeralda Santiago. 40% complete. E-Book
• Make Me Rain: Poems and Prose by Nikki Giovanni. 80% complete. Print.
• Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. 20% complete. Audiobook.
• Up next:
• 44 Poems of Being With Each Other: A Poetry Unbound Collection Padraig O Tuama. Print.
• The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier. Audiobook.

Poetry Break:

Poem

Langston Hughes

(To F.S.)

I loved my friend.

He went away from me.

There's nothing more to say.

The poem ends,

Soft as it began, --

I loved my friend.

I love you guys, too, my blog-reading friends.

Happy Easter!

-Anne

Short Poetry Reviews: BLACK GIRL YOU ARE ATLAS and FOR EVERYONE

Black Girl You are Atlas by Renée Watson

In this semi-autobiographical collection of poems, poet Renée Watson writes about what it is like growing up as a Black girl. "Using a variety of poetic forms, from haiku to free verse, Watson shares recollections of her childhood in Portland, Oregon, tender odes to the Black women in her life, and urgent calls for Black girls to step into their power."

When I saw this poetry book by Watson I felt sure I had read other YA books by her but looking over her list of published works, I recognize some of the titles but never actually read any. I thoroughly enjoyed this small collection, perfect for middle and high school libraries. The poetry is completely accessible. I especially like the variety of poetic forms used. The poems are described as semi-autobiographical, I would have thought it was a memoir-in-verse, at least the first section was. In the next section Watson wrote poems about Black women, some who lost their lives to racism. "A Pantorum for Breonna Taylor" and "A Tanka for Michelle Obama" are two examples. 

Look for this collection at your public library, encourage your librarian to buy it if your school or public library doesn't have a copy.

Random House, 2024.

For Every One: a Poem. A Nod. A Nothing to Lose. by Jason Reynolds

Back before the YA novels The Boy in the Black Suit, The All-American Boys, and Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds was just a struggling writer/artist dreaming about his future. Early in his life he dreamt he would have made his first million before age 30. Here he was 28, so broke he had to move back in with his mother. This book began as a letter to himself as a way to clinging tight to the nugget of "thin air I referred to as my dream." It isn't really a poem or a letter in the strictest definitions. More a pep talk. A pep talk that all people who have a dream deferred need to read. Reynolds said he worked on this "letter" for years, finally publishing it as a way to help others. The title is perfect: For Everyone. We all need pep talks from time to time.

As I was looking around for an online version of the poem, I found this video of Jason Reynolds performing it.What powerful stuff. Set aside a bit of time to watch it or at least a portion of it. 

Caitlyn Dhouy Books, 2018.

I rated both books with 5 stars.

-Anne

Nonfiction review: EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS

Title: Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green

(I do not have a physical copy of the book with me today so I grabbed two quotes  found on the internet. They are not from the first or the 56th pages...just good quotes!)

Quote 1:

I’m a novelist, not a historian of medicine. TB is rare where I live. It doesn’t affect me. And that’s all true. But I hear Shreya, and Henry, and so many others calling to me: 'Marco. Marco. Marco.'

Quote 2: 

We cannot address TB only with vaccines and medications. We cannot address it only with comprehensive STP programs. We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause.

We must also be the cure.

Summary: How did John Green, a YA novelist, get involved in a project writing about the deadliest infection of all-time? It all started when he and his wife were in Sierra Leone to learn about the country's maternal and neonatal healthcare system. On the way back to the airport, a doctor they were with needed to make a quick stop at Lakka, a government hospital dedicated to treating tuberculosis patients. While there Green met  Henry, a seventeen-year-old patient for his antibiotic-resistant TB. Because of Henry and other children with the deadly disease, John Green started doing research. Most of his research started with questions. There has been a cure for TB since the 1950s so why is it still the world's most deadly disease? With advances in medicine being found every year, why are there so few options for doctors to use with TB patients? Since the majority of people who contract TB are poor with poor nutrition how can we make the world care about them and the disease? This book is the first step.

Review: John Green is a very clever writer. Even writing about a dismal subject like tuberculosis, he makes the topic interesting and relevant. In the first quote he talks about the game we've likely all played in a swimming pool with our friends. One person is it. They close their eyes and yell "Marco." Everyone else has to yell "Polo" allowing the 'it' person to echolocate on the friends, trying to touch one of them before they swim off.  Using this game as an analogy, he says that Henry and Shreya, and others were calling out to him to do something to get the world to care about TB and their treatment. "Marco. Marco. Marco." This book is John Green answering back, "Polo."

Since TB is curable, why do people die from it today? The quote answers that -- injustice. Drug companies charge large sums for drugs to cure TB, making the drugs completely out of reach for people living in impoverished places like Sierra Leone, Haiti, and Peru. The problem Green says is that "the disease is where the cure is not, and the cure is where the disease is not." Think about it. If one of us, living in the US, Canada, Japan, or Australia got the disease, we would take the treatment, be cured and be done with it. Green says, “People who are treated as less than fully human by the social order are more susceptible to tuberculosis but it’s not because of their moral codes or choices or genetics, it’s because they are treated as less than fully human by the social order.” Ouch!

We can do better not just for these people but for all mankind. Here Green talks about how we need to find ways to start virtuous cycles concerning worldwide health, not just for TB but for other health issues. With money and attention we can conquer this scourge. Unfortunately just as this book was rolling off the presses, Trump and his minions decided to eliminate or scale back US AID to the most needy nations for help in fighting TB, malaria, and AIDS. It is as if they think, "we're fine -- sucks to be you." This kind of thinking makes me want to scream and shout, pull out my hair, and cry. We're all on this planet together. If one person does better, we all do better. How do we begin?

Reading Everything is Tuberculosis is a good place to start.

My rating: 5 stars. 

 

-Anne

Poetry reviews: HOW TO LOVE THE WORLD and THE WONDER OF SMALL THINGS

Last October my husband and I made a trip across the country to vacation in Boston and several towns in Maine.  Wherever we were we tried to visit independent bookstores. I've made it a 'policy' to purchase something every time I enter these little shops. It's my way of helping them stay in business. While in Boston we visited the darling, and quite famous, Beacon Hill Bookstore. I could live inside that place quite happily, I think. I purchased my first James Crew poetry anthology, How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, there.

One whole floor of the Beacon Hill Bookstore is dedicated and sized for children

In his introduction, titled "The Necessity of Joy", James Crews says,

For many years, reading and writing poetry has been my personal source of delight, an antidote from the depression that can spring up out of nowhere. I now carve out what I call 'soul time' for myself each day, making space for silence and reflection... We need poems like the ones gathered here to ground us in our lives, to find in each new moment what Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer describes as, 'the chance for joy, whole orchards of amazement.'

I love that -- so much joy it is like "whole orchards of amazement." Don't you?

In addition to the collection of poems which lead us toward joy, hope, wonder, and gratitude, Crews asks the reader to pause several times during the reading to reflect on one poem longer than the others by providing reflective pauses. He also gives a suggested prompt for writing practices based upon the poems if one wants to pause a little longer. I find these reflective prompts very helpful in pulling out deeper meaning from the highlighted poem. This enhances my whole poetry reading experience. there are seven or eight of these reflective pauses in each volume.

A Reflective Pause and Invitation for Writing and Reflection page in response to the poem "Thankful for Now" by Todd Davis.

In addition to the poems and the reflections Crews does something I've never seen in a poetry anthology before. At the end of the book he highlights ten poems with book club discussion questions for them. I love this! It makes me want to try this in my book club. I've never even considered reading poetry for our monthly selection, but why not? I think it would be fun to dig in a little deeper into these ten poems and discuss our thoughts and insights. An example question from the Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer poem, "How It Might Continue": 

• What does Trommer mean when she suggests that we can go around with "our pockets full of exclamation marks"? Do you know someone like this, who carries the seed of delight with them wherever they go, giving them freely?

I'd love to talk to my friends about what it is like to be around someone who has a pocket full of exclamation marks! How much fun would that be to pause and reflect on such things?

Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion, highlighting ten poems

I haven't read the second book in this anthology series, The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy, but I've added it to my TBR.

The third book, The Small Wonder of Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal, was also a delight to read, though if I was rating the them, I liked the first book a bit better. In the forward of this book, Nikita Gill tells a story about a conversation she had with her grandmother when she was very young. Her grandmother said, "where there is wonder, there also lives poetry." They were picking strawberries at the time. Picking one and lifting it up, she said, "To a poet, even a little strawberry like this is a poem." This collection focuses on those small, ordinary gems-- like ripe berries, or carrots pulled from the ground -- which remind us of the many miracles in our lives.

I'll leave you with two poems, one from each volume, and hope they entice you to read on.

"Field Guide" by Tony Hoagland in The Wonder of Small Things.

Once, in the cool blue middle of a lake,
up to my neck in that most precious element of all,

I found a pale-gray, curled-upwards pigeon feather
floating on the tension of the water

at the very instant when a dragonfly,
like a blue-green iridescent bobby pin,

hovered over it, then lit, and rested.
That’s all.

I mention this in the same way
that I fold the corner of a page

in certain library books,
so that the next reader will know

where to look for the good parts.

"Hope" by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer in How to Love the World

Hope has holes

in its pockets.
It leaves little
crumb trails
so that we,
when anxious,
can follow it.
Hope’s secret:
it doesn’t know
the destination–
it knows only
that all roads
begin with one
foot in front
of the other.

Happy National Poetry Month! I hope this post has brought you joy and a sense of wonder.

-Anne