Following Hope by Sabne Raznik

I have spent the past several days reading and rereading your wonderful Following Hope. I especially liked the first poem with the similar name, "Follow Hope." I loved the way you used sentence fragments to tell the whole story. It's a very natural style. In "Valhalla Blue" I especially liked the imagery: "leafed-out mountains like hands," "pen...like a Turkish belly dancer," "sexual as Morocco," "language that is chameleon," "hips ring like bells," "gypsy-clad habits." I did wonder who was Richard Hugo, but that can be your secret. I loved the references to watercolors and stained glass. This poem is so deep I cannot determine if it is a real lover you are writing to, or is it the hope for a lover. Or maybe even the lover is God as in the poet Rumi. I enjoyed greatly the adventure with this poem.

I liked the "Dumb Hillbilly" who laughs with "his cock-eyed smile On backwards." The image of you sleepless came to my mind, of course, and the part about how they tell you, "Don't examine. Don't investigate. Don't question." I can just see the "bearded Prophet" with his "End of the World Is Near" sign. I love that you take stuff from your experience and surroundings to tell this story, i.e., the "Strip-mines...like deserts on top of Green mountains," the "leafed-out red bud tree," your fumbling with the "leaf (you) found on the ground. And studied its veins like a roadmap to the inner soul of the world, praying It would come to more than greed." That phrase just bowled me over!

On "Waiting it Out," I was seduced into wanting to actually spend an evening talking with you about Hindus, avoiding talk about the "nightmarish possible." It is a feeling everyone human must surely share, and you say it so deftly, so sweetly. "Une Ville" is a wonderful, melodic, rollicking celebration of Europe and bellydance and Africa and "Soupbeans and Cornbread." I loved it. Such a tiny, succinct way to describe a huge subject.

"Fingers" is another amazing poem: "I wonder What are you dreaming of, How is it that I fit in?" Of course, who hasn't wondered this? Again, you caught something, a feeling that is so damned deep and distressing, but that passes like a shadow over the mind of a lover.

I loved "Philly--This elongated smear, coal-black finger print on glass, Tar on my heart" from "Philadelphia." It makes me want to hear your take on all cities. And in "Budding," I loved the entreaty, "Teach me beautiful words." You certainly fill that bill utterly. Your words are beautiful, your thoughts subtle and introspective, your intelligence and experience amazing. Makes me want to ask, how old are you? Where in the world did you come from? Sounds like a tacky question, but I am serious. It would seem you'd have to be an crone to come up with some of the ingredients you put into this enticing soupbeans and cornbread. You simply must stay with this quest. Your poetry will take you far, if that is what you want. I have no doubt of it. It's just a matter of getting it out to the "right" people. Have you ever played around with song lyrics? Have you read or listened to Bob Dylan? I am not suggesting that you do, just that some of these poems might also be songs, like his.

Well, dear one, I am sorry I took so long to answer you directly. I told your mom more or less what I thought about the book after one reading, and I am glad she passed it on to you, but I wanted to say so much more about this little collection of your poems. (I wondered if the book might be too short, but decided that the quality of the work would satisfy sufficiently, and leave the reader wanting more.) I wish I were a publisher.

"Thank you for that beautiful book- a harvest of really striking poems in a really elegant creation. The language is haunting; in fact the entire book reads like a haunted, lyrical, warm, violent, wounded love-poem in which togetherness and a chilly gulf of seperation vie with each other, and hurt is inseperable from loving passion. This leads to a situation where warm intimacy and icy distance assess as they embrace.

"Fingers" is one of the most powerful poems I've read for a long time. These same fingers claw this reader's mind and imagination long after the book has been laid aside. But this book doesn't really get laid aside; it walks the streets of Dublin with me. For this I thank you and may your special magic continue to flourish. "

-Brendan Kennelly,
Irish poet

I can't express fully how absolutely delighted I am. It gave me a great rush to open the book, read such wonderful poetry and see my own photographs amongst them! The photographs look great in black and white, and I am extremely proud to have them printed in a book that means a lot to me!

I've been reading over the poems all morning, and I love each and every one. I particularly love 'Inside' - its the poem at which I first opened the book to and is also one of the poems that I've been drawn to read again and again. The photograph suits it perfectly I think- both the poem and the picture ooze femininity!

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me this amazing opportunity! Thankyou so much for the wonderful books, which are extremely precious will be treasured!

You have brightened and inspired me to go out and take some more photographs, I am so proud of the books!"

- Jan McCullough,
photographer

Sabne Raznik 's first collection of poems has been accompanying me from work to home and back again these last few days. It's a handsomely made book: POD books are improving in quality all the time. The photographs, some by the author, are an attractive complement to a collection preoccupied with the visual: glitter, dazzle, kinetic energy. The collection begins with the well-sustained sequence "Valhalla: blue", though I have to confess to being a bit puzzled by the title: I have never much liked the idea of the Norse warriors' paradise, and it seems an odd place to find these gossamer lyrics, despite their inner steel. The poems I like best are the ones which seem consciously to experiment with line length and breaks: "Dinner Talk" and "Fingers" are both interesting in this regard. But there are fine phrases scattered throughout: "Experience is a changeling", "water coloured smiles and gypsy-clad/ habits", "A leather-clad, muted blue star" ("Valhalla: blue") "Crowded streets of baked rain" ("Une Ville"), "tecertainty of ships" ("Fingers"). "The Bearded Prophet" has a political dimension, commenting on the ecological change wrought by strip-mining on the poet's native Kentucky. The very best piece is also the funniest, though, "Dream: 2 a.m.", in which the speaker recounts a stroll through New York with a very rakish Brian Eno. There's a real commitment and dedication to language in this first collection that promises much for the future.

-Kitt Fryatt.
Irish poet

"Nineteen poems comprise this debut collection by an eastern Kentucky writer. In the long poem "Valhalla: blue", the poet flings down the guantlet of youthful angst: "We were born here,?But do we belong?" These notes towards a manifesto, written in a highly self conscious style, affirm a faith in language, an apocalyptic pessimism, and a hunger for something, somewhere. The poet is tired of certain social norms, as in these lines from "The Bearded Prophet": "They encourage numb credulity; on our knees/ We pray to whom they say/ And fold hope like/ Origami." "Following Hope" is a vague and dispiriting roadmap out of ennui and language finally is no savior. Raznik is at her best when she does not overreach with too many disparate images, as in the efficient "Fingers" and "Philadelphia"."

-Elaine Palencia,
"Pegasus" (official journal of the Kentucky State Poetry Society)

Following Hope
(4 out of 5)
Author: Sabne Raznik
Publisher: Xlibris Publishing
Pages: 60
Price: $10.00
Publication Date: 04/2007
ISBN: 978-1-4257-4090-0
Category: POETRY

An eclectic collection of poems and photos. Poetess Sabne Raznik resides in the Appalachian region of Eastern Kentucky. One would assume the poetry of an Eastern Kentucky poetess would be rustic, simple, and focus on the beauty of the hills and forests of the sparsely populated region.

This is definitely not the case in Following Hope. The poetry of Following Hope is amazing in its sophistication and depth.

Following Hope presents the reader with a wide variety of poetry, and an equally wide variety of captivating photographs. Poems like "Dark", "Underside of Ugly", and "Atmosphere" present the reader with a dark world full of feeling. Especially gripping is the poem "Fingers" which depicts a tale of sexual violation. Not all is gloomy in Raznik's world as poems like "Budding" and "Follow Hope" offers a sense of positivity. Stirring photographs spread throughout Following Hope both compliment and contrast the poems of the book.

Fans of multi-stanza poetry will be pleased with Following Hope as Raznik offers several examples for the reader. Because of her unique talent Raznik has been referred to as "the "Rock-n-Roll" poet, often drawing comparisons to the great Bob Dylan. Just as they would enjoy a good song, readers of Following Hope will truly appreciate the talent of Raznik, and the deep feeling of her verse.

Following Hope by Sabne Raznik is a 58-page softbound book printed by Xlibris, with 46 pages of prose and photography where the photos are as good as the words they accompany (all credited to the artist taking them, of course).

Sabne's words are visually stimulating to the point that they pull you in to walk along beside her as you traverse through her world. She brings emotion alive and you see what she sees as if you were there; almost to the point that you wish you had written it yourself.

Although there were a few poems I didn't care for, there were also those that were so well written I actually had to stop to catch my breath and pull myself back to reality. This alone is, to me, what makes a poet.

Following Hope takes you through the city to the woods; love, loss and redemption. It confines itself to no one area of poetry and takes you on a thoughtful path through its many layers to fulfillment, leaving out only gore. All in all it is a good read and we'll look forward to her sophmore edition."