She said, “Even Jesus had help.
No one martyrs alone.”
In Of Roots and Wreckage, Laura A. Lord moves us with the imagery that has come to define her poetry. Whether looking into the brutal truths of where one calls home to moments of reveling in the joy and pain of an aging body – Lord is open to exploring in raw honesty the smallest of moments and describes with startling clarity the mysteries that move and break us.
From Of Roots and Wreckage:
Gypsy Woman
My friend took one look at him,
pulled her lips against her teeth
and spit the word out, Gypsy,
like some briny ooze
to gleam and bubble on the asphalt.
I preferred, Traveler,
complete with an ailing grandmother
who played solitaire
alone on the picnic bench
under the lean-to of his camper.
The roof pitched at an angle
so water fell like the fat drops
of an ubiquitous God’s tears,
intangible God.
She waited for the sunrise every morning
like this being would appear –
a coruscation, a God,
an expulsion of the sun.
He wore his father’s baseball hat,
so the brim scraped down my chest
like a dog following the trail of his tongue.
He balanced his plate on a stack of magazines
and said ‘algae’ like ‘allergy,’
while wiping a finger through the green on the tank.
I think she was far more interesting than him.
I think I fucked him, just to be near her.
She waited at dawn for God to take her away.
She cursed him at night in her sleep.
And I think I wanted to wait with her.
I scraped together my prayers
like the slippery yolks of the eggs he cooked
and waited for light, waited with her.
Please click HERE to read more from Of Roots and Wreckage
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Reviews
Of Roots and Wreckage is a recommended read for those who enjoy unique and transcending poetry …
“Of Roots and Wreckage is a poetic intertwinement of youthful prowess with fear of aging, seasonal changes with tangible scents they leave behind, simple life of the suburbs with urban spoilage of the latter. One cannot help but think of trees…how they sprout naturally from fallen seeds, how they grow tall outwardly and spread and twine their roots inwardly, how they are harvested from human and mechanized interfering. One cannot help but think of life-cycles…from life to death and anything in between that synthetically meddles with the natural phases of our existence and our world.
With the lucidity of her chosen words and with the vivid richness of her imageries, Laura A. Lord was able to move me so profoundly to the roots of my core. And with the last penned ink, I could not help but to pause and to reflect upon the fragility of life and the world we live in. How youthful beauty is promised to no one for ever, yet aging has its perks as well – distinctive wrinkled lines of experience and wisdom. How restoring it is to live in a simpler time, a simple life, with simple but meaningful things. How the world becomes complex with complexed people only because of forgetting to honor the simple life or destroying the remains of it and rewriting history.
Of Roots and Wreckage is a recommended read for those who enjoy unique and transcending poetry and metaphysical philosophy about figurative and literal roots and harvests.”
– Nadia Gerassimenko, Amazon
Read the full review HERE.
4 Out of 5 Stars!
“Plenty of pain, and enough ‘nature’, in these raw and attractive poems (and a bit of prose). I got this book via Firstreads.”
– Len, Goodreads
Four Out of Five Stars!
“I received this in a giveaway. It was truly a descriptive set of poems. I enjoyed reading them and there were quite a few lines i liked a lot. I love the way the imagery and emotion was laid out. Job well done!”
– Abby, Goodreads
My Response to Laura A. Lord’s Of Roots and Wreckage
“Answering the call of Laura Lord’s poetry
I write not as a poet
For I have not Lord’s skill nor gift
But in response to her words moving mine
That, in itself, is testimony to how her words transport me
Her words take me to places I’ve never been
To experiences I’ve never had
But most of all
Her words move me to write in verse
Rather than in sentences and paragraphs
Perhaps there is no greater compliment
Than to say she inspires me
With her use of language
To hone my own
Now
If only I could tell a story
As well as she does
Oh, well
By the way
I’m absolutely thrilled that she quoted me on her cover
I’ve read ALL of her books”
– Kitt O’Malley, Amazon
Laura A. Lord 