Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Kaveh Akbar

2017 • 137 pages

Ratings11

Average rating4

"'The struggle from late youth on, with and without God, agony, narcotics and love is a torment rarely recorded with such sustained eloquence and passion as you will find in this collection.' -Fanny Howe. This highly-anticipated debut boldly confronts addiction and courses the strenuous path of recovery, beginning in the wilds of the mind. Poems confront craving, control, the constant battle of alcoholism and sobriety, and the questioning of the self and its instincts within the context of this never-ending fight. From 'Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before': Sometimes you just have to leave whatever's real to you, you have to clomp through fields and kick the caps off all the toadstools. Sometimes you have to march all the way to Galilee or the literal foot of God himself before you realize you've already passed the place where you were supposed to die. I can no longer remember the being afraid, only that it came to an end. Kaveh Akbar is the founding editor of Divedapper. His poems appear recently or soon in The New Yorker, Poetry, APR, Tin House, PBS NewsHour, and elsewhere. He is the author of the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry). The recipient of a 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, Akbar was born in Tehran, Iran, and currently lives and teaches in Florida"--

Genre

Poetry

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Allie

... compared to him Iam healthy and unremarkable here I am reading a pharmaceutical brochurehere I am dying at an average pace envy is the only deadly sin that's no funfor the sinner ...... I am less horrible than I couldbe I've never set a house on fire never thrown a firstborn off a bridgestill my whole life I answered every cry for help with a pour with a turningaway I have given this coldness many names thinking if it had a name itwould have a solution thinking if I called a wolf a wolf I might dull its fangs ...
- Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Inpatient)

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There's a lot in this slim collection that I didn't get, but the language is rich and beautiful and I enjoyed the lyricism rolling around my brain. But the main thing I got from this collection is that, I really appreciate when poets play with form. I'm not even sure I understood the one I'm thinking of, Supplication With Rabbit Skull and Bouquet, but it could be read on the first page and then the second, or could be read across the two pages, and I liked how the sentences changed, depending on how it was read.

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None of my friends want to talkabout heaven. How there is this eternityand the one for thosemore clerical with their faith....but I do wonder what gets left out —least favorite songs on favorite albums, an uncle's conquered metastasis,or the girl whose climaxes gave way to panic,whose sobs awakened the feeling of prayer in me.May they be there too, O Lord....
- Neither Now Nor Never

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I keep trying. I wish I was better at reading poetry! I'm including a few of my favorite excerpts. And still, even with my lack of understanding, I'm thankful this art form exists.

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...I try not to think of God as a debt to luckbut for years I consumed nothingthat did not harm meand still I lived, witlessas a bird flying over state lines.I would be more grateful if being alive hadn't seemed so effortless,the way I'd appreciate gravity moreif I'd had trouble floating in my teens.Still, I apologize.My straight white teeth have yellowedand I can't tell a crow from a blackbird.I'm sorry. I'm sorry.This may be me at my best.
- Personal Inventory: Fearless (Temporis Fila)