(BlazeVOX Books, 2019)

REVIEW BY NETTIE FARRIS 

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As indicated by its title, Songs of the Sun Amor, by Wade Stevenson, is a full-length collection of poetry about love. Stevenson is the author of the memoir One Time in Paris, and two collections of poetry subtitled “A Memoir with Poems.” Understandably, this collection appears to be autobiographical, yet not, necessarily, confessional.

Mother and father appear frequently in this collection, which opens with the poem “About My Mother.” This poem is followed by “The Map of Elsewhere,” which begins: “My mother sat on a wheelchair.” Later in this poem, we hear: “No mother to me, a mother in name, never caught in the act.” We hear also: “Then my father got mad, venting his fury.” The poem ends: “I discovered love in strange places / Real Amor was on the map of elsewhere.”

The love sought in this collection seems to be a supreme love. Something beyond the realm of inadequate parents.

My favorite poem is, perhaps,  “My Teddy Bear.” This poem is about forgetting the past. Living in the present:

A long time ago I lost my teddy bear

Today my white dog barks

To tell me that he’s hungry

Why is the past so difficult to bear?

Why can’t I just exist

Feed the dog, breathe with my breath,

Disinvite the starving guests of ghosts

Exhale, say with simple thanks

Life is good and that’s enough?

Similarly, “Sun, No Son” imagines a new beginning:

If by chance or luck I could be born again,

Emerge another, to learn to love again

I’d seek to become one with God’s eye, the Sun

However, we see glimpses of the beyond, which is the amalgam of opposites:

God, when you find Him,

You’re stunned

To find out

He’s smaller

Than you ever imagined

Bigger

Than you ever thought possible.

When we add opposites, the sum is infinity, as exhibited by “When You Die”:

When you die

You’ll never be lonely

Because you’ll die with the best

Friends and lovers you had

And all those you did not

Meantime, “There is no ordinary, every Amor is extraordinary.”

These are poems about forgetting our past injustices, living in the present, and looking forward to the infinite love beyond this life; for, as we learn from the conclusion to “Promise of the After”: “God’s blow will finish my body hard as a hammer.”

In Songs of the Sun Amor, Stevenson demonstrates an affinity with verbs and occasional rhyme. But most important, he demonstrates an affinity for coherence. This collection is truly a series of lyrical poems that tell a significant story.

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Nettie Farris is the author of three chapbooks of poetry: Communion, Fat Crayons, and The Wendy Bird Poems. She is the former reviewer for Blue Lyra Review‘s Spotlight on a Press feature, and has published numerous reference articles for Salem Press, including micro biographies of 100 world poets. Her essay on Lydia Davis appeared in the Journal of Kentucky Studies and her peer-reviewed article on William Faulkner’s Sanctuary appeared in the Kentucky Philological Review.