Weaving patterns of words, images, and even in the table of contents, Sanna Wani’s debut collection of poetry My Grief, the Sun takes us on a ride through emotions and space. Wani’s poems flit through reflection and longing, worship and spirituality, to look for the world. This is a dense collection – not that it’s lengthy or difficult to get through but because Wani explores so many different topics. And yet, it remains accessible and open. My Grief, the Sun is a playful, magical collection of poems.
“Beautiful and fresh, this is a great choice to dive into for Poetry Month.”
Divided into four parts, Wani makes use of images to open each section of the book: poems, embedded in the images, become layered pieces of art, ushering us into sections of poetry that ask us to imagine different forms, as well as take note of how she plays with the shape of words and white space on the page to evoke a deeper meaning in each poem. “Pendulum,” (p. 21) is both left and right justified, snapping the eye and forth. Similarly, the following poem, “Sing,” is written in a circle, bringing to mind a round.
My Grief, the Sun is a tribute to the current era and the complexity of grief. Wani writes with equal gravity about Princess Mononoke as she does about the grief of losing a sister, in the titular poem “My Grief, the Sun.” To me, this is the perfect choice for the title of the collection: it is truly a stunning blank verse poem, so crisp in its memories and pain, the apologies the narrator offers her sister and the way she experiences her grief, from the freshest moment to the guilt of not being to the grave more frequently.
Beautiful and fresh, this is a great choice to dive into for Poetry Month. The joy even in the saddest of poems and even the tense moments, this is a collection that finds delight in life, and its delight is contagious in the best way.
SANNA WANI loves daisies. Her work has appeared in Brick, Poem-A-Day (poets.org), and Best Canadian Poetry 2020. She lives in Mississauga, Ontario, and Srinagar, Kashmir. This is her first collection of poetry.
- Publisher : House of Anansi Press (April 5 2022)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 112 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1487010842
- ISBN-13 : 978-1487010843
Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
- Alison Manleyhttps://miramichireader.ca/author/alison-manley/
