Reviews

 Booklife  

Part political commentary, part confrontation with history, Conway’s pained, scathing collection reconsiders historical moments that no one would deem the brightest hour for nations and peoples, opening with the powerful “The Consequences of a Blackman Bringing Fire,” about the shooting of Martin Luther King Jr, and moving on with titles like “An Abrupt Flash of Hell in Urbania.” Illustrations created by Hampton R. Olfus Jr. illuminate the darkest moments, the sketches breaking through the white of the page as if to show the shadows the light is trying to burn out, and Conway offers some reprieves, such as a paean spending the night with someone beautiful or observing a dragonfly skirting above the surface of water without care of what might lie beneath. Those moments propel readers (and possibly the poet) to keep going, an encouragement to push forward.

Conway’s poems face injustices of global history, in the Americas and South Africa and China and more, often sharply critiquing systems of power that have not just allowed atrocities and apathy but encouraged them. The bluntly titled “A Progressive Act of Land Reform, As Viewed by a Latin American Child” summons up the vulnerability of having nowhere to turn as the powers that be destroy the Earth itself—”brown earth-flesh” spatters against this El Salvadoran’s “tin casa” like “rain falling against an empty Campbell’s / soup can.”

 

The Poetic Vibrations of a Matured Butterfly is raw yet ethereal, a dream journal linking powerful injustices throughout history into an interrelated whole, tied together by a vigorous clarity of language, especially in the occasional short poems that open with “Oppression is …” and then offer ever-evolving examples that each connect to the same enduring root problem. The collection builds to the powerful image, in the penultimate poem, of “…a mighty Panther devouring a dead, tainted Eagles / flesh…” The reincarnation detailed afterwards gives a sense of change–of hope–despite all the scenes of misused power that precede it. Conway brings fire.

Takeaway: A pained, potent collection of poems on global injustice, oppression, and even hope.

Great for fans of: JP Howard, Larry Neal, Haki R. Madhubuti.

Available from these ebook stores:

A Review

 

"The Poetic Vibrations of a Matured Butterfly," is an incredible first collection of work by Arthur Lee Conway that accentuates the stitches of reality through well-crafted lyrical and prose poems. Weaving current events, personal experience, history and even mythology he poignantly captures the pain and joys of life.

Conway's book of poetry is hauntingly illustrated by Hampton R. Olfus, Jr. with numerous dark but poignant images. The black and white drawings chillingly attempt to reveal Conway's vignettes of life that he paints with surprising figurative language and visceral imagery. Conway's words, and the drawings by Olfus results in an eerily effective delivery of passionate feelings and emotions.

Conway's prose is a balance of life's cherished occasions with the equally precious moments of inevitable death. However, there is a deep sadness resonating throughout his collection.

In a piece titled "Angst I," Conway writes:

The fear of being alone can be like man's secularized concept of God's imminent return. .. that only extroverted sinners will perish in Gehenna. While the earthly Spokesmen of God's Word will flourish eternally in some cinematic kingdom in the sky.

Conway's multi-dimensional themes keep the reader engaged throughout. He explores "Oppression," in its many permutations - familial, relational, personal, geographic, musical, social, spiritual, etc. Many of his verses convey feelings that stay with the reader long after the book is read. The emotional resonance is entangled with his weaving of origins of a people cursed today with scars of yesterday. He writes of the poem's characters seeking feelings, but experiencing only a world of numbness. He often expresses loss with a juxtaposition of visceral, physical imagery with a tone of clinical coldness and detachment.

"The Poetic Vibrations of a Matured Butterfly," is a book of reflections of grief and loss, and the processing of those emotions. Conway pays tribute to Martin Luther King in, "The Consequences of a Blackman Bringing Fire," which speaks to social dynamics. But some reflections express the warmth that certain memories provide as in:

Nostalgia sometimes encircles a man

like the wintry wind; making him draw his coat

tightly and, reside in the warmth that it provides.

A lot of dark images bubbled to the surface while I read these poems, but regardless overall it was an exciting collection of poetry. I think you'll find that Arthur Lee Conway is a poet to read now and to watch in the future.

 

Cin Win Review on the Butterfly book: