SONGS FOR MY FATHER
"Songs for My Father is a personalized book of poetry that is moved along by messages of hope for healing.
Katherine Lazaruk’s engaging poetry collection Songs for My Father grapples with the hardships and traumas of a childhood not centered by love.
Communicating memories of a childhood marked by alienation, these poems include poignant imagery, though many of them are also spare and unadorned. They recall a stifling home environment that is fleshed out in an innovative way—via the reluctance of the lines themselves, which seem hesitant to communicate, mirroring the discomfort surrounding the difficult subject matter itself.
In “The Intermediary,” a reference to the Styx in the land of the dead appears, repurposed as an apt metaphor for the speaker’s tortured relationship with her parents, in which her mother acts as an intermediary:
the darkness of him and
the terror of me.
Connected,
disconnected,
ferried secondhand messages,
triangulating tense terror…
The poem communicates the numbness and deathly calm of being trapped in an unhealthy family dynamic. Though it is short, the entry’s serious subject matter is handled well.
Throughout the book, inventive compound words are a frequent technique, used to describe evocative concepts and emotions: “they don’t have the power to hurtruledestroy me,” one poem declares, while another asserts that “they don’twon’tmightnever.” Another appeals to “mymother.” Musicality is achieved, too, in entries like “When Your Father Is Twelve,” whose rhythmic movements convey bombastic finality. After years of struggling, its narrator determines that her father is too emotionally stunted to have made room for her own childhood:
…your father is twelve
or maybe five,
emotionally speaking,
stagnantstuckyuck,
[so] you don’t get to be twelve
or five.
However, some of the collection’s lines take this spareness to an extreme; the effect is stifling. For example, in the terse entry “Say Something Good,” there is a suggestion that something momentous has taken place, but the audience is not enlightened; whatever the event was, it seems to be unmentionable.
Nonetheless, the book works toward concluding poems that reflect expanded self-awareness, with the collection having progressed from sharing a child’s perspective to reflecting that of a musing adult. And in the book’s memorable epilogue, there are lines that denote struggle and defiance—a sense of a voice “that can’t be so easily silenced.” Indeed, this epilogue makes meaning of all that the speaker endured; it demonstrates real healing through music and self-love, as well as an encouragement not to give up.
Songs for My Father is a personalized book of poetry that is moved along by messages of hope for healing."
- Foreword Clarion
Katherine Lazaruk’s engaging poetry collection Songs for My Father grapples with the hardships and traumas of a childhood not centered by love.
Communicating memories of a childhood marked by alienation, these poems include poignant imagery, though many of them are also spare and unadorned. They recall a stifling home environment that is fleshed out in an innovative way—via the reluctance of the lines themselves, which seem hesitant to communicate, mirroring the discomfort surrounding the difficult subject matter itself.
In “The Intermediary,” a reference to the Styx in the land of the dead appears, repurposed as an apt metaphor for the speaker’s tortured relationship with her parents, in which her mother acts as an intermediary:
the darkness of him and
the terror of me.
Connected,
disconnected,
ferried secondhand messages,
triangulating tense terror…
The poem communicates the numbness and deathly calm of being trapped in an unhealthy family dynamic. Though it is short, the entry’s serious subject matter is handled well.
Throughout the book, inventive compound words are a frequent technique, used to describe evocative concepts and emotions: “they don’t have the power to hurtruledestroy me,” one poem declares, while another asserts that “they don’twon’tmightnever.” Another appeals to “mymother.” Musicality is achieved, too, in entries like “When Your Father Is Twelve,” whose rhythmic movements convey bombastic finality. After years of struggling, its narrator determines that her father is too emotionally stunted to have made room for her own childhood:
…your father is twelve
or maybe five,
emotionally speaking,
stagnantstuckyuck,
[so] you don’t get to be twelve
or five.
However, some of the collection’s lines take this spareness to an extreme; the effect is stifling. For example, in the terse entry “Say Something Good,” there is a suggestion that something momentous has taken place, but the audience is not enlightened; whatever the event was, it seems to be unmentionable.
Nonetheless, the book works toward concluding poems that reflect expanded self-awareness, with the collection having progressed from sharing a child’s perspective to reflecting that of a musing adult. And in the book’s memorable epilogue, there are lines that denote struggle and defiance—a sense of a voice “that can’t be so easily silenced.” Indeed, this epilogue makes meaning of all that the speaker endured; it demonstrates real healing through music and self-love, as well as an encouragement not to give up.
Songs for My Father is a personalized book of poetry that is moved along by messages of hope for healing."
- Foreword Clarion
LOVE IS NOT PIE
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"A powerful and blindingly intimate introspection of the affairs of the heart when that heart dares to defy gravity and reach for the sun. Scorching and kind. The reader is left with an incurable addiction and glowing hope for more from Katherine Lazaruk." - E. Durham "Dying reading your book. I'm trying so hard not to read it in one go, so I allow myself a little bit each night. It's beautiful. I'm obsessed! I bought some extra copies to share with some special friends. Thank you for sharing your truth with the world." - K. Emsley "Get your copy, it's an interesting read." - N. Burke |
"A courageous book...her journey is so far from my ideals and that's what is fascinating and captivating about her vulnerable stories." - A. Bran "I picked up my copy yesterday, and I am sitting here and cannot put it down - so fabulous!" - S. Murphy "I truly could not put it down, I had to stop myself so I could savour it more." - K. Lockhart |
"A relationship rises and falls in stolen moments in Katherine Lazaruk’s emotional, autobiographical poetry collection
Love is Not Pie.
About an extramarital relationship that resulted in an expanded understanding of oneself and one’s capacity to love,
this poetry collection follows a story structure, making it more akin to a novel or memoir in verse. There is a beginning,
a middle, and an end; the entries track the roller coaster of implicit want and explicit need. In the beginning, there is
possibility: “My husband is a patient man” sets up the dynamics of the marriage, a team of a solid man and a sensual
woman with mutual respect. “He was my road not taken” introduces the second partner. It is filled with wistful longing
and a dash of sexual tension, tracing the will-they-won’t-they history of the pair.
In the book’s middle, there is negotiation. “Facebook Messenger made it easy” details the flow of conversation
between the two, rediscovering each other and circling closer to the consummation of “The exquisite pleasure.” There
is also frustration. “Affairs” is a hard piece about the confines of monogamy, the desire to explore outside of it but not
without it, and the dawning realization that someone is, and always will be, lying. In the end, there is finality and a
commitment. “The first time I tried,” “The second time,” and “The third time” are all about the different ways Lazaruk
tried to end the relationship and set boundaries. Yet she always found her way back—until that last time, when
complete understanding set in that her “and” would not, or could not, give her what she craved: honesty.
The poems elevate literary devices to an art form. Line breaks build tension, emphasis, and breaths. They take the
speed of words that run together and use them as internal thoughts and not containable emotions; they use
parentheticals as asides, drawing out the words between the words. Alliteration creates a cadence that makes the
poems leap from the page, best exemplified in “I used to think”:
We women,
wise and wizened,
wild, wondrous, wily,
strong, straight, standing,
still against the wind
storm straining our belief,
beloved,
blind faith in the face of
the end endings ended and
endless.
The book also exhibits a quality of restraint in what can not be restrained. “I used to think” is a heartbreaking poem
about the potential of becoming a widow, and realizing that it would “hurt like hell,” because she is truly, madly, deeply
in wild, consuming, steadfast love with her husband. On the other end, erotic poems like “You are beautiful. That is all”
and “White clad, crisp” tread the line just this side of explicit. They paint tantalizing images of intimate moments
without being vulgar or disrespectful.
The poems of Love is Not a Pie, crafted through moments of reflection and of intense emotion, serve as a reminder of
the depth and breadth of love, and of what love could be when embraced with passion and honesty.
Love is Not Pie is an unflinching examination of love and self-in-love beyond the parameters of monogamy."
- Foreword Clarion
Love is Not Pie.
About an extramarital relationship that resulted in an expanded understanding of oneself and one’s capacity to love,
this poetry collection follows a story structure, making it more akin to a novel or memoir in verse. There is a beginning,
a middle, and an end; the entries track the roller coaster of implicit want and explicit need. In the beginning, there is
possibility: “My husband is a patient man” sets up the dynamics of the marriage, a team of a solid man and a sensual
woman with mutual respect. “He was my road not taken” introduces the second partner. It is filled with wistful longing
and a dash of sexual tension, tracing the will-they-won’t-they history of the pair.
In the book’s middle, there is negotiation. “Facebook Messenger made it easy” details the flow of conversation
between the two, rediscovering each other and circling closer to the consummation of “The exquisite pleasure.” There
is also frustration. “Affairs” is a hard piece about the confines of monogamy, the desire to explore outside of it but not
without it, and the dawning realization that someone is, and always will be, lying. In the end, there is finality and a
commitment. “The first time I tried,” “The second time,” and “The third time” are all about the different ways Lazaruk
tried to end the relationship and set boundaries. Yet she always found her way back—until that last time, when
complete understanding set in that her “and” would not, or could not, give her what she craved: honesty.
The poems elevate literary devices to an art form. Line breaks build tension, emphasis, and breaths. They take the
speed of words that run together and use them as internal thoughts and not containable emotions; they use
parentheticals as asides, drawing out the words between the words. Alliteration creates a cadence that makes the
poems leap from the page, best exemplified in “I used to think”:
We women,
wise and wizened,
wild, wondrous, wily,
strong, straight, standing,
still against the wind
storm straining our belief,
beloved,
blind faith in the face of
the end endings ended and
endless.
The book also exhibits a quality of restraint in what can not be restrained. “I used to think” is a heartbreaking poem
about the potential of becoming a widow, and realizing that it would “hurt like hell,” because she is truly, madly, deeply
in wild, consuming, steadfast love with her husband. On the other end, erotic poems like “You are beautiful. That is all”
and “White clad, crisp” tread the line just this side of explicit. They paint tantalizing images of intimate moments
without being vulgar or disrespectful.
The poems of Love is Not a Pie, crafted through moments of reflection and of intense emotion, serve as a reminder of
the depth and breadth of love, and of what love could be when embraced with passion and honesty.
Love is Not Pie is an unflinching examination of love and self-in-love beyond the parameters of monogamy."
- Foreword Clarion