Monday, May 21, 2018

The Endicott Review Volume 35, Issue 1 Review by Zvi A. Sesling ( Brookline Poet Laureate)

 
The Endicott Review
Volume 35, Issue 1
Spring 2018
Copyright © 2018 by The Endicott Review
Softbound, 68 pages, no price provided

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

One often hears of the talented writers and artists in the Ivy League and other large colleges. However, at Endicott College there is enough talent to satisfy most aficionados.
Their 2018 Spring Issue is loaded with fine poetry, wonderful art and photography.

Take Dani Comorre’s I am… in which the author tells you their persona – or does not tell you:

I am…
a scientist forced to write poetry that might actually make sense
the brim of a hat that can be manipulated
bent or straightened forward or backward
the sugar at the bottom of your coffee
too sweet you can’t drink the last sip
as stable as a three-legged chair
a bicycle with square wheels
the rainbow coming from the pot of gold
the college student too old to be young but too young to be old
the one that’s too much, but is never enough

You can see the potential in this poet and it will be interesting to see how the poet will write this again and again in 10, 20 or30 years.

Rebecca Kenneally, a faculty member, observes nature. Here is her short poem Celebration which celebrates what many people would abhor.

The spiders came out in the night
and left streamers of silver
draped delicately over leaf and stem,
over goldenrod and birch.
I know the party wasn’t for me,
but I was honored all the same.

There are some other poems, for example, Sunflowers by Olivia Perez-O’Dess in which love and hate merge into love. There is also Symphony of Nature in which Dan Calnan ( The Ibbetson Street Press/Endicott College Young Poet for 2018), questions-- then reaches a conclusion for readers to contemplate. While both of these poems are too long to reproduce here, getting the publication will give readers the chance to read these and other poems see wonderful visual arts, among which are photos by Sydney Kimball and Mackenzie Corey, Jeff Thor, Jenna Valentine and an eerie one by Laura Cunningham. Some of the art works are excellent examples of photo-realism in which art can be easily compared to photographs. These include works such as Abbey Laurin’s humorous presentation of a woman tying a knot in a headband, Abigail Suchocki’s suggestive girl eating what appears to be a carrot and Ben Dages portrait of a male.

There are many other writings worth reading and art and photographs worth viewing. Hopefully the college will put them on exhibit for the public to enjoy.


_________________________________________
Zvi A. Sesling
Reviewer for Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene
Author, The Lynching of Leo Frank

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