A Voice for Independent Authors

“You can kill a book quicker by your silence than by a bad review.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

REVIEWING TODAY: I AM A WORLD OF UNCERTAINTIES DISGUISED AS A GIRL BY NICOLE LYONS

Although, considering the perspective of her work, Nicole Lyons might smirk cynically at being called: A Major Gifted Talent – her collection of poetry, I Am a World of Uncertainties Disguised As a Girl places her as such with no trace of uncertainty or equivocation. There is no doubt she earns such poetical respect for her peerless ability to communicate, clearly and precisely, the deepest sufferings of life, but also leaves no doubt she has endured them first. No one could talk like this purely by imagination.

I have been covered

in easy kisses

from uneasy lips

and I know I

smell weary again.

***

My life can be boiled down

to nothing more than

a series of tracks hauling

freight trains filled with intensity,

and me, the ultimate train wreck,

just itching to play chicken.

In every poem included in I Am a World of Uncertainties Disguised As a Girl, Nicole Lyons creates a beautiful continuity of rhythm, sound, meaning, and intensity. In turn, while accessible poetry is a true rarity, either sacrificing depth for shared understandings, or worse, using false obscurities to imply such depth, Lyons retains an almost suffocating emotional consciousness without sacrificing the familiar. And, perhaps most courageous for a poet seeking serious validation, she unerringly applies a ruthless conciseness to her creations that is apt to be mistaken for simplicity. Her poems are not simple. They are simply devastating.

And sometimes these words,

they save me, but sometimes,

most times, they kill me,

syllable by fucking syllable,

they rip me to shreds.