THE SKY WILL OVERTAKE YOU

Falk explores themes of transience, memory, and grief in this book of poems rooted in nature. In the opening entry, the speaker’s muse informs her that she is unnecessary because the sky is a “stunning event” whose ever-changing inspiration is more powerful than imagination. In “It,” the poet describes a fleeting but blissful moment of nothingness, “the mind gently sweeping thought away / until the window is blank” before life’s noise rushes in again. As “Morning” dawns, the speaker admires the sunrise, determined to love her life despite regrets. In “Geranium,” she contemplates the flower’s “hot eye, / which glares back at you like fire.” A “Summer Storm” batters a garden, and the speaker wonders why some blooms survived while the peonies succumbed to the downpour. A bird careening into a window serves as an “Awakening.” Memories of childhood difficulties creep into some of the poems: “The Walls of My House” recalls tension between a girl and her mother, juxtaposed with a neighbor in a coma whose daughter waits at her bedside for “a half-spoken word, / any blessing or curse.” “What Kept Me Standing” recounts a father hitting his 13-year-old daughter so hard she bleeds all over her hot-pink sneakers. “Enduring” reassures readers that sorrow “will retreat” and that time “wrestles down grief,” allowing one to “re-emerge, whole and cleansed.” The final poem, “Open Gate,” invites readers “to begin again.” Falk plumbs the depths of emotional and ecological truths with these sparse but insightful verses. The poet captures the holiness of nature, from “falling petal, wind-lifted leaf, / shift of shadow on grass” to the healing, grounding powers of a “lush, chaotic” garden. Her words paint stunning portraits as she describes “The laden arms of the oak, the elm, / and the agitated hunger of the small jays, // the fat globes of white sugarmum / where bees suck love.” However, the poems may be too abstract and removed for readers who prefer a more direct approach.

May 19, 2025 - 05:26

Falk explores themes of transience, memory, and grief in this book of poems rooted in nature. In the opening entry, the speaker’s muse informs her that she is unnecessary because the sky is a “stunning event” whose ever-changing inspiration is more powerful than imagination. In “It,” the poet describes a fleeting but blissful moment of nothingness, “the mind gently sweeping thought away / until the window is blank” before life’s noise rushes in again. As “Morning” dawns, the speaker admires the sunrise, determined to love her life despite regrets. In “Geranium,” she contemplates the flower’s “hot eye, / which glares back at you like fire.” A “Summer Storm” batters a garden, and the speaker wonders why some blooms survived while the peonies succumbed to the downpour. A bird careening into a window serves as an “Awakening.” Memories of childhood difficulties creep into some of the poems: “The Walls of My House” recalls tension between a girl and her mother, juxtaposed with a neighbor in a coma whose daughter waits at her bedside for “a half-spoken word, / any blessing or curse.” “What Kept Me Standing” recounts a father hitting his 13-year-old daughter so hard she bleeds all over her hot-pink sneakers. “Enduring” reassures readers that sorrow “will retreat” and that time “wrestles down grief,” allowing one to “re-emerge, whole and cleansed.” The final poem, “Open Gate,” invites readers “to begin again.” Falk plumbs the depths of emotional and ecological truths with these sparse but insightful verses. The poet captures the holiness of nature, from “falling petal, wind-lifted leaf, / shift of shadow on grass” to the healing, grounding powers of a “lush, chaotic” garden. Her words paint stunning portraits as she describes “The laden arms of the oak, the elm, / and the agitated hunger of the small jays, // the fat globes of white sugarmum / where bees suck love.” However, the poems may be too abstract and removed for readers who prefer a more direct approach.