Trick bag:
Warding off evil spirits with Diane Sahms
REVIEWED BY JEROME BERGLUND
Blues, Prayers, & Pagan Chants by Diane Sahms (Alien Buddha Press: 2024). 86 pages, 5.5” x 8.5”. ISBN: 979-8873734580. $11.25 on Amazon.
I am St. Francis’s statue
In her earlier collected works Diane Sahms established herself as a virtuoso of the personal and specific, expert at capturing phenomena and experiences local and regional with incredible knack and eye. Throughout the length of the latest impressive addition to her growing body of striking work, Blues, Prayers, & Pagan Chants, the award-winning Philadelphian wordsmith and educator demonstrates herself every bit as capable in exploring ideas and concerns at their broadest and most lofty, through precise and thoughtfully staged vignettes locating tenets universal amongst the commonplace, discovering eternal truths via disparate and memorable lenses of sundry subjects across our man-made and natural worlds including birds, wildflowers, insects, celestial bodies, and stringed folk instruments. There is much resilience and hope, defiance not to mention courage to be discerned in and absorbed from these pages too:
Dulcimer’s broken strings—restrung.
Exposing meaning amidst a given day and setting’s ostensible chaos has always been the observer’s objective, a philosopher’s purview and challenging tasking, and Sahms proves no slouch, well up to the undertaking delivering a compelling narrative of consequential import. Dedicated to her grandson, under an explicit mission and banner of speaking in honor of, championing the ‘preservation, protection & restoration of Mother Earth’, this is a significant volume compiled and disseminated in service towards noble ends.
few Voodoo leaves remain
From title page onwards, intriguingly establishing a valuable synergy and solidarity, connections exemplifying intersectionality between traditions Abrahamic and polytheist, linear and cyclical, eastern and western (from Appalachians to central America and the cradles of civilization, South Pacific through land of the rising sun), black white or gray (paying homage eclectically, directly or allusively, to many potent inspirations and caring forebears to these traditions including Byron, Van Gogh, D.H. Lawrence, Mozart, Andy Warhol, Muddy Waters, Rodin), like the rhythmic calls and responses, repeated beseeches or praising which the collection commences with, builds from as important jumping off point and foundational core premises, this book stirs a reader compellingly to examine what matters most in our lives, on our planet all things considered, and spurs us each to take substantial concrete action accordingly wherever possible.
a reflective river, where minnows dart
The text represents an appreciated reminder and environmental rallying cry, encouraging crucial reform in the objective interest of both ourselves and those promising, endangered generations ahead in the hazy distance. Relayed couched in beautiful, poignant language, encapsulating stirring imagery and substantial episodes deftly related (also exhibiting a knack for impactful, remarkable titling) this tour de force is highly worth poring over, contains riches which can bring enormous edification and boons of wisdom meditatively unpacking. The inventive application of diverse modes—including illustrations of tanka and some other exciting metrical approaches—eloquent protean shifts of communication mechanism between styles and forms further enhances the material and makes for seriously captivating and mesmerizing reading. Diane’s honoring of sycamores and dogwoods lost, advocating for forget-me-nots and butterflies remaining, forthcoming is a conscientious and beneficial contribution, making for a book of righteous purpose and significance, progressive activism-oriented poetry bolstering numerous vital causes, executed compassionately with laudable imagination and fastidious technique of the highest order. This is what Anthropocene poetry should look like, and marvelously demonstrates the genre’s capabilities for articulating pressing, urgent needs of our species and the ecosystem cradling us. Here’s hoping powers that be take heed and right the ship, correct humanity’s collective course before it’s too late.
bronze statues turn green
Diane Sahms is the author of five full-length poetry collections including recent chapbook COVID-19 2020 A Poetic Journal (Moonstone Press, 2021). She has been in North American Review, Sequestrum Journal of Literature & Arts, Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal, The Northern Virginia Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Chiron Review, POEMS-FOR-ALL, among others. Formerly a high school English teacher, she teleworks full time as a procurement agent and is poetry editor at North of Oxford. https://dianesahmsguamieri.wordpress.com
http://www.dianesahms-guamieri.com
Jerome Berglund has published book reviews in Fevers of the Mind, Fireflies Light, Frogpond, Haiku Canada, Setu Bilingual Journal, Valley Voices, also frequently exhibits poetry, short stories, plays, and fine art photography in print magazines, online journals, and anthologies.
Fevers of the Mind 
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