Angels & Beasts
by Claudia Serea
Published by Phoenicia Publishing, 2012
Poetry by Claudia Serea
Exterior art: An angel, surrounded by animals and the souls rising from their graves, blows the bucium at the Last Judgement. From an exterior fresco at St. George's Church, Voronet Monastery, Romania, c. 1540
102 pages
$13.95 plus shipping
ISBN 1927496004
Available at Phoenicia Publishing. Claudia Serea's Angels & Beasts is an incredible collection of poetry. I ran upon Serea online about 4 or 5 years ago, and the poem that I read, I do not remember word for word, but I remember the imagery, and it has stuck with me for this many years still. I couldn't wait to get my hands on everything she had done, but I didn't pursue her words the way I should have. Once I came across her writing again, this time, I was certain to hang on this time. When I saw Angels & Beasts, I couldn't wait to get a copy. As soon as I opened the book, the poem had me. Although I was so excited to get this book, I stayed on the first poem for a while, as it was so amazing that I read it over and over. I had to let the imagery settle on my senses:
In the deserted delivery room, the moon came to shine the tools and the steel sink.
I was small and quiet as a spoon. Another girl to bear the world's pain, my mother said,
and the plum tree outside the window dropped a few pink petals.
The collection is divided into three sections: Angels & Beasts, The Little Book of Answers and The Bank Teller's Name is Jesus. Serea's 1st section tells of her life in Romania with her family - her father, mother, grandmother, aunt, uncle, grandfather, etc. The poems are incredibly touching, as well as vivid and rich in imagery. The creatures that sneak into the poems are terrifying, contrasting the angels that hover and soften the landscape of poems. The details within the stories create the family as a backdrop. These angels and beasts are tales of reality mixed with myth, folklore and surrealism, smashed against the interpretation of a young girl's memory.
The Little Book of Answers is slightly different in tone, taking place in smaller spaces - the rose under a red dress - yet those tight spaces open up to larger spaces that allow more room for breath. The rose in No becomes an old memory of secrets where "We didn't talk, for fear the pollen would fall into our mouths." Although the spaces are wider, it allows for a wider sadness to overcome the subjects. Look at me, I'm dancing is another poem that shows you the sky, but reels you in to remind you of earth. Many of the poems in the second part of Angels & Beasts do this, they pull the subject in, giving a glimmer of hope, and then reminds them that there is a reality behind their hoping.
In the last section, The Bank Teller's Name is Jesus, the exit happens, the uprooting. Claudia's autobiographical collection takes a turn to America, and the settling in. This is never an easy task, to settle. These final poems have great juxtaposition in them - white and black feathers, the guardian angel and the angel of death. They both sit on her shoulders. And, Jesus is a bank teller, "a bald guy who smiles at me, counting money with quick hands."
I can't say enough about how these poems inspire me, even the way they are laid out on the page - in quick reads, deceitful little sentences that pack an incredibly powerful punch. This is the collection of poems that will make you think differently, write differently, read differently, and make you pull the covers up a little closer to what you feel is reality.
Claudia Serea is a Romanian-born poet who immigrated to the U.S. in 1995. Her poems and translations have appeared in 5 a.m., Meridian, Harpur Palate, Word Riot, The Red Wheelbarrow, Cutthroat, Green Mountains Review, and many others. She was nominated two times for the 2012 Pushcart Prize and for 2012 Best of the Net. She is the author of Angels & Beasts (Phoenicia Publishing, Canada, 2012), and A Dirt Road Hangs from the Sky (8th House Publishing, Canada). She also published the chapbooks The System (Cold Hub Press, New Zealand, 2012), With the Strike of a Match (White Knuckles Press, 2011), and Eternity's Orthography (Finishing Line Press, 2007). She co-edited and co-translated The Vanishing Point That Whistles, an Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Poetry (Talisman Publishing, 2011). She also translated from the Romanian Adina Dabija's Beautybeast (Northshore Press, 2012). Visit her blog at cserea.tumblr.com.
by Claudia Serea
Published by Phoenicia Publishing, 2012
Poetry by Claudia Serea
Exterior art: An angel, surrounded by animals and the souls rising from their graves, blows the bucium at the Last Judgement. From an exterior fresco at St. George's Church, Voronet Monastery, Romania, c. 1540
102 pages
$13.95 plus shipping
ISBN 1927496004
Available at Phoenicia Publishing. Claudia Serea's Angels & Beasts is an incredible collection of poetry. I ran upon Serea online about 4 or 5 years ago, and the poem that I read, I do not remember word for word, but I remember the imagery, and it has stuck with me for this many years still. I couldn't wait to get my hands on everything she had done, but I didn't pursue her words the way I should have. Once I came across her writing again, this time, I was certain to hang on this time. When I saw Angels & Beasts, I couldn't wait to get a copy. As soon as I opened the book, the poem had me. Although I was so excited to get this book, I stayed on the first poem for a while, as it was so amazing that I read it over and over. I had to let the imagery settle on my senses:
In the deserted delivery room, the moon came to shine the tools and the steel sink.
I was small and quiet as a spoon. Another girl to bear the world's pain, my mother said,
and the plum tree outside the window dropped a few pink petals.
The collection is divided into three sections: Angels & Beasts, The Little Book of Answers and The Bank Teller's Name is Jesus. Serea's 1st section tells of her life in Romania with her family - her father, mother, grandmother, aunt, uncle, grandfather, etc. The poems are incredibly touching, as well as vivid and rich in imagery. The creatures that sneak into the poems are terrifying, contrasting the angels that hover and soften the landscape of poems. The details within the stories create the family as a backdrop. These angels and beasts are tales of reality mixed with myth, folklore and surrealism, smashed against the interpretation of a young girl's memory.
The Little Book of Answers is slightly different in tone, taking place in smaller spaces - the rose under a red dress - yet those tight spaces open up to larger spaces that allow more room for breath. The rose in No becomes an old memory of secrets where "We didn't talk, for fear the pollen would fall into our mouths." Although the spaces are wider, it allows for a wider sadness to overcome the subjects. Look at me, I'm dancing is another poem that shows you the sky, but reels you in to remind you of earth. Many of the poems in the second part of Angels & Beasts do this, they pull the subject in, giving a glimmer of hope, and then reminds them that there is a reality behind their hoping.
In the last section, The Bank Teller's Name is Jesus, the exit happens, the uprooting. Claudia's autobiographical collection takes a turn to America, and the settling in. This is never an easy task, to settle. These final poems have great juxtaposition in them - white and black feathers, the guardian angel and the angel of death. They both sit on her shoulders. And, Jesus is a bank teller, "a bald guy who smiles at me, counting money with quick hands."
I can't say enough about how these poems inspire me, even the way they are laid out on the page - in quick reads, deceitful little sentences that pack an incredibly powerful punch. This is the collection of poems that will make you think differently, write differently, read differently, and make you pull the covers up a little closer to what you feel is reality.
Claudia Serea is a Romanian-born poet who immigrated to the U.S. in 1995. Her poems and translations have appeared in 5 a.m., Meridian, Harpur Palate, Word Riot, The Red Wheelbarrow, Cutthroat, Green Mountains Review, and many others. She was nominated two times for the 2012 Pushcart Prize and for 2012 Best of the Net. She is the author of Angels & Beasts (Phoenicia Publishing, Canada, 2012), and A Dirt Road Hangs from the Sky (8th House Publishing, Canada). She also published the chapbooks The System (Cold Hub Press, New Zealand, 2012), With the Strike of a Match (White Knuckles Press, 2011), and Eternity's Orthography (Finishing Line Press, 2007). She co-edited and co-translated The Vanishing Point That Whistles, an Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Poetry (Talisman Publishing, 2011). She also translated from the Romanian Adina Dabija's Beautybeast (Northshore Press, 2012). Visit her blog at cserea.tumblr.com.
