“Poetry books are never fairytales; they’re maps of spoilt devotion”
‘Knees in the Garden’ drew me in as soon as I saw it-I guess it was love at first look. I know book titles are meant to drag you in straight away, but some do this more than others. ‘Knees in the Garden’ was one of those standout titles, hinting at a collection that was visceral, raw and beautiful- and I was right.
This is Christina Rodriguez’s debut collection, kindly gifted to me by Querencia Press. Rodriguez’s work has also been featured in Yes, Poetry and Satin Soulbits amongst others. This collection is confident, raw, and stunningly beautiful. It grabs at your heartstrings and doesn’t let go.
Framed by a quote from Borges, (“to fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible God”), the collection explores love in all its forms, and towards ourselves. The collection follows that central idea of worshipping people as altars. The religious iconography is then continued throughout to great success. This idea of love being worship, and our loves as altars is something I had never even thought of before, but makes so much sense. When we fall in love with someone, they become our world. We think about them with raging curiosity, planning our life around them, and longing to be with them-we only see the good, and never their flaws. However, this collection isn’t sunshine and rainbows, but a blast of feminine rage that is raw and unsettling, highlighting the importance of self-control when the toxicity of love overtakes all else.
Rodriguez takes us on a journey of styles, from fragmented experimental forms, to prose poems that punctuate the book like confessionals. These were the pieces that have stuck with me for days to come. If this collection was a film, we would have the beautiful metaphorical music montages before being jolted into reality by direct, heart wrenching confessionals from the booth. The play on words of ‘conquer-bines’ in the poem ‘Prize: Fat Girl’ was also a stroke of genius that made me scribble it down excitedly.
I started picking out favourite poems, and ended up with a list way longer than useful for a review. However, some of my favourites included ‘Goddess’, ‘The Ways we Ask for it’, ‘Holy’, and ‘Coffee Hour and Street Fairs’.
Rodriguez’s work is touching, direct, raw and sexy and will keep you enraptured from start to finish. Her use of language is second-to-none, and I particularly enjoyed the bilingual nature of poems such as ‘Mujer of Combustible Living’, seamlessly interweaving Spanish and English within lines and verses. Rodriguez is a talented poet, whose work stays with you beyond the final page- I look forward to following what they do next.
If you like experimental poetry that is full of evocative images, but at the same time challenges you and stamps on your heart, this is the one for you.
Knees in the Garden is available to buy from a number of outlets listed here: https://kneesinthegarden.com/
Christina’s website: https://crodonline.info/#
If you are a publisher/author and would like me to review your book/work, email me using the email on my contact page.
Mel Piper 