01/13/2025
A lot of energy goes into reviews, as can be seen in this testament from BC Poet Stephen Karr to BC Poet Cynthia Sharp's Ordinary Light
TITLE: ORDINARY LIGHT
Author: Cynthia Sharp
Publisher: Silver Bow Publishing, 2023
ISBN: 9781774032534
Pgs: 91 pp
Price: $23.95
Reviewer: Stephen Karr
What a magnificent and timely book of poetry Cynthia Sharp has written. Her first book, Rainforest in Russet, is a wonderful meditation on nature and its intersection with the author’s life. Ordinary Light expands on themes with an introduction to the milieu of multiple intersecting crises that we experienced in the early 2020s, including the COVID pandemic and the 2021 heat dome in British Columbia from a very personal, eco-conscious perspective.
“What We Call Fine” speaks to the ignorance that we have to endure that leads to our polluted air, whether its toxic dryer fragrance, wildfire smoke “there are lethal pollutants in the air / and we make indexes to categorize it/ instead of laws to halt it / the world still fossil fuel addicted / my cough worsening.” However, she notes, we can thank sea air to rescue us from our perilous course and “breathe us back to the wisdom of simplicity.”
“Unveiling Light” calls out our species’ recklessness regarding the crises we face “whose species stupidity / now surpasses what nature can heal / what it should have to heal / playing ego with nuclear war and planetary fire.” However, we redeem ourselves with the realization “that we too find our resistance to oppression / through humble acts of everday courage.”
In the “Alchemy of a Heartbeat”, Cynthia compares the climate crisis and resulting pollution with the impact of Mount Vesuvius on Pompeii in 79 AD: “like the noble Pilny / who rescued as many citizens / as he could from ancient Pompeii / then died on the beach of respiratory problems / I wonder how long our bodies have / to struggle against particle inhalation.” However, she adds, “in the morning / we give thanks / for all that still is.”
In Cynthia’s magnificent epic eight-page poem “Burning Times”, inspired by John Keats’ "Ode to a Nightingale," she uses an encounter with a hummingbird as a jumping off point to explore the contrast of the peacefulness of the hummingbird’s existence with the author’s experience of disruption and concern over the climate crisis and all its consequences. Sharp concludes the poem, “and I am left to ask / why are we selling our demise / if our chance for peaceful survival is an option / if meaning can be found / sated in sustainability.”
In "Tiers," she examines the consequences of extreme weather events, and how they may affect more profoundly the lives of those who are struggling financially, then shifts very movingly to imagining a life without any of these concerns, “if only I could get back in / to not having to know.”
My favourite aspect of this collection is that, despite Cynthia’s serious concerns about the state of the world. particularly regarding climate, she often leaves us with a nugget of hope that we can alter the direction in which we are heading. This book is so well written, and the words and ideas just flow so smoothly. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves great poetry, and particularly for those who share the author’s concern for our plight and the need for a livable planet.
About the author: Cynthia Sharp holds an MFA in creative writing and an Honors BA in English literature. She is a full member of the League of Canadian Poets, was the WIN Vancouver 2022 Poet Laureate and was one of the judges for the Pandora's Collective 2020 International Poetry Contest. Her fiction, poetry, reviews and creative nonfiction have been published and broadcast internationally in journals such as CV2, Prism, Quills, Pocket Lint and untethered and nominated for the Pushcart prize. Cynthia served two years on the executive of the Federation of British Columbia Writers and was the City of Richmond's 2019 Writer in Residence. She recently completed graduate studies in ecopoetry in Washington State, where she was on the editorial team of The Pitkin Review. She is the author of 'The Light Bearers in the Sand Dollar Graviton' and 'Rainforest in Russet' available worldwide.
About the reviewer: Stephen Karr is a library technician and poet who writes about social and environmental issues, nature, and personal observations on his life and locating himself in the world. He lives in Vancouver. He is finished his first book of poetry which will examine his liver transplant, recovery, and transformative effect on his life from an existential perspective. He is a regular at open mics in the Greater Vancouver area, and has featured several times. He contributed a poem to the Life in Quarantine anthology by Writers’ International network, and to Quills Magaine, and has been published in Royal City Literary Arts Society Wordplay at Work ezine. He is a member of Pandora’s Collective and Burnaby Writers’ Society.
