Wednesday, March 22, 2017

“Faces in a Crowd: Poems” by Mary Harwell Sayler


One thing poetry can do, often better than non-poetic literary forms, is to present images and ideas that challenge our notions of the status quo, of what we believe, and how we understand the reality of the everyday. The 70 poems of Faces in a Crowd, a new collection by Mary Harwell Sayler, does this exceptionally well.

Sometimes, she asks questions directly. “Can you see / that forlorn little boy, alone, / waiting to be remembered / inside the man, / caught now in clouds of anger?” And “What is there to prove / but being for, / not just against?”

Sayler asks the learning questions – who, what, where, when, how, and why. She considers the photojournalist reading herself to death. And she takes on how we understand history, as in this poem:

Artifacts

In school, I learned
of wars and dates
that celebrate
the conqueror’s pride
in victory.
It took me many
years to ask –
to take to task
the conquering side
of plot and story.
Why hide from me
the tapestry
of history
unfolding lots
of peoples, places,
homes?
Let’s celebrate
the victory
of cooking pots
and combs.

Sayler considers the everyday events and realities we all experience – family gatherings, dementia, aging, funerals, new flooring in the kitchen, Halloween costumes, and more. And she turns each into a question, often probing, always on point, leading us to consider that what we see is not necessarily what we understand.

Mary Harrell Sayler

Many of the poems in this collection were previously published in literary journals and other magazines.

Faces in a Crowd invites us to look beyond the obvious, remove the masks and disguises (and sometimes the blinders), and see our world, and ourselves, as we really are.


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Top photograph by Redd Angelo via Upsplash. Used with permission.

2 comments:

Mary Sayler said...

Thank you, Glynn, for reviewing Faces in a Crowd. May God continue to bless you as you help other poets and writers and as you continue to write all you have been given.

Martha Jane Orlando said...

I adore Mary's poetry! Now this is a book I will definitely order today. Thanks for featuring it here, Glynn!