Gothic Epistle Romantica: Poetry Inspired By Undying Love by Vaz Anzai
While reading this book, I thought of Edgar Allan Poe’s poems about a departed lover, as well as the myth of Orpheus, who traveled to the Underworld to bring back his departed wife, Eurydice.
This is not to say that Vaz Anzai’s book is a copy of Poe’s poems. Nope. Anzai weaves a distinctive song of his own. The characters in these poems reach out for each other, beyond death, in a longing to reconnect and have what they once had. They are gifted with a time to “relive some of our most precious memories together.” Amid the ache of loss, the lovers have a moment of celebration, champagne and rapture.
Dark beauty fills the poems of this book, a sad beauty of the ache after a loved one is gone. Broken hearts and broken souls. Creativity can pour out from joy, but also from pain. This poetry is evidence of that. The lines charged with the love that desires to keep loving. And striking imagery, too. My favorite was the “room of heavy rain,” a scenario rich with detail and emotion. The same can be said of these poems, heavy with longing.
Dave Williams 