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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Sedimental by Kevin James Salveson is a collection of the author's original poetry, with poems that situate human experiences in settings and scenes shaped by his own connections to them. In “Poetry Has No Place for Pessimism,” the imagery of hospitals and machines frames survival as an uncertain wager. “The Peace Bus Grows Moss” presents an abandoned vehicle absorbed into nature, its past erased by vines and robins. “Footprints on Tai Shan” depicts a forest journey where paths vanish and survival requires persistence against cycles of death and renewal. In “Locusts,” swarming insects strip fields bare, paralleling human consumption. “Cannon-Eyes” links personal memory with destruction, where old letters burn to ash alongside a vision of insatiable appetites. “How’s Shanghai?” portrays alienation in an oppressive urban environment of pollution, derision, and control.
Kevin James Salveson’s Sedimental: Poems 2017-2022 is a really wonderful and uniquely intelligent compilation, and as a British-American reader of Asian descent, I found it especially affecting and connected with it in a way I was not expecting. Salveson is wildly prolific, so choosing a favorite among many is not easy, but I love “Little Luxuries” and its bittersweet beauty and raw realism in lines like, “you reach an age when nostalgia for dolls, die cast race cars, and spaghetti in a can are luxuries you cannot afford.” Two other standouts are “Abandoned Child at the Kunlun Paranormal Research Institute” with its eerie atmospherics, and the fantastically gorgeous “Invite the Stars,” which is absolutely luminous. Together, these pieces showcase Salveson’s gift and inventiveness, and the collection as a whole is unforgettable. Very highly recommended.
