Boat That Can Carry Two - Matthew M Cariello - Bog

This stunning series of poems resembles, as Coriello explains, a curtail sonnet of sections that are eleven lines of three iambs (five couplets plus a singlet). While the form of the poems is impressive, I am even more moved by the lyricism and language used in the poems and by the sensitively told back-story that is slowly revealed through the long (60-part) poem that makes up a large part of this book. The details of the story - that of the loss of a sibling, his sister in an accident - are skillfully woven throughout the poem. Through the interweaving of the images and metaphors, the poet develops the feeling of overwhelming loss and grief, and perhaps his own feeling of guilt (e.g., "how vain of me to pretend your pain"). It is these moments of self-questioning that, for me, are the most compelling. The poet asks, for instance: "How do I break my panic among all this death?" and later, in a heartbreaking section, reflects on what ordinary event of the day in which he was participating at the very moment his sibling died. This long sequence is universal in scope, brimming with controlled emotion, and skilled in its formal and linguistic techniques. - Patrica Fargnoli, Poet Laureate of New Hampshire, Distinguished Poet Judge of the Bordighera Poetry Prize, 2009-2010