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Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
Did you know that poetry can, and does, heal? Perhaps you haven’t read or written any recently, so you may not know this simple fact. In Claudia L'Amoreaux’s Red-winged Blackbird Calls Me Home, the poet reveals a deeper understanding not only of herself but of the simple complexity of what it means to be human, down to the heart. With deep, soothing sincerity, nature interconnects with human existence, like the red-winged blackbird: “my salvation/ has always been/ walking/ on/ dirt/ lying/ on/ dirt … red-winged blackbird/ medicine/ the boundary/ of skin/ wind.” And she brings the reader into the interconnectivity of human existence: “there you will be/ just between the letters on any page/ … no words would shine.”
Claudia L'Amoreaux’s book, Red-winged Blackbird Calls Me Home: Poems and Meditations, is a journey of sorts, a memoir of one person’s human existence and what she sees in the sometimes turbulent, yet resilient world around her. The book includes poems, praise songs, rites of passage, rituals, stories, and meditations. The poetry is mostly free verse, with a powerful use of language in metaphors that one might not expect, yet they rejuvenate and inspire the reader. The book is organized into sections, more like themes, ending with what any musical mind would appreciate: a Coda. After all, like in music, humanity and the themes therein carry on beyond the promised finale. At the end of the book is a concise summary of references and influences, as well as an interesting Acknowledgment that is something of a story in itself that sets the stage for how this collection evolved. A powerful reflection of life.
