Book: INTERIOR: Ex Tenebris
Reviewed by ErikaWasReading
Rating: 4/5
INTERIOR: Ex Tenebris is a collection that explores fifteen emotions through cosmic horror and religious/theological metaphors. The imagery is dark, and its exploration of our existence is uncomfortably bleak.
The first thing that struck me about this collection was the title. I am familiar with the Latin phrase ex tenebris lux, which translates to “out of darkness, light.” So when it was simply ex tenebris, my initial impression was that this collection would explore the depths of darkness, without focusing on the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
My habit of reading every word an author puts on the page also paid off! The epigraph is a quote from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Carrion Comforts.” If you are not familiar with Hopkins, he was a Victorian poet and Jesuit priest who introduced sprung rhythm, a poetic rhythm designed to mimic natural speech. His work explored divine creation, individual identity, and spiritual struggle. These two context clues gave me a framework for each poem as I savored the language and explored the meaning.
As a collection, INTERIOR: Ex Tenebris works beautifully, and as I reflected on each poem, I noticed how they connected and played off one another. My favorite poem is the final one, The Brief Loan, which I interpreted as an exploration of death and our limited time on this planet.
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I received an advance copy of this book from Rattle the Stars PR at no charge. This is my honest, voluntary review.