by Wendell Hawken (Author)
Sequel continues the sequence begun in Hawken's full collection White Bird (FutureCycle Press, 2017) in which the predictable seasons of country life serve as foil to the unpredictable course of a beloved's struggle with cancer. Elegiac in tone, resilient in context, T.S. Eliot's objective correlative is alive and well in this rich yet accessible work. The speaker here looks with a "fierce unflinching eye" at a changed-by-illness world in which a menagerie of animals, wild and domestic, and birds reflect and enrich a human understanding.
Language here is melodic and precise, the work of a keen ear and a poet well in command of her craft. Hawken often employs an end-line/first word rhyme scheme that wraps the work in language and tumbles the poems down the page.
If you are a caregiver, or know one, if you are dealing with cancer or know someone who is, Sequel will bring comfort and the recognition of shared experience.