Kaveh Akbar, “Poetry’s Biggest Cheerleader” according to NPR, recently published his first debut book-length collection of poems Calling a Wolf a Wolf, and it’s delightful. This collection dives into his Iranian heritage, his experiences as a recovering addict, and his experiences being a person generally wonderstruck by life.
Akbar expertly uses tropes and schemes within his writing to fill the audience with a feeling of wonder. How is this man expertly weaving together words and phrases while maintaining clarity? The answer: extremely well. Let’s take for example the phrase from his poem “An Apology” where he writes “don’t hurt something / that can smile, don’t hold any grief / except your own.” This is a phrase that someone might say “tastes good,” and this is because it employs balance effortlessly (though I’m sure a good amount of effort went into its’ creation).
Not only are the words on the page woven together seamlessly, which is all anyone can really ask from a good poem, but his ideas bounce around between different anecdotes and descriptions drawing together the different parts of his life and identity into one cohesive collection that leaves the reader winded and inspired (at least if the reader is anything like me).
His methods of structuring his poems vary from piece to piece. One of my favorite structures he uses is for the poem “Supplication with Rabbit Skull and Bouquet” where he employs a double page spread aligned right and left, each line appearing to be in conversation with its’ reflection on the opposite page. As a writer, the move felt risky, what if the reader never picked up on the relationship between the right and left page? As a reader, the risk paid off. Not only did it add interest and break up the single-sided page that an audience comes to expect, but it also makes you (the reader) feel good when you “get it.”
He breaks stanzas by alternating between left alignment and right alignment in several other poems in the collection, which is surprising and extremely satisfying each time.
This collection really makes you feel good in general. It is the type of writing you can’t help but finish in one sitting, then spend days and weeks digesting. I can only hope for more from Akbar and poets like him, bringing fresh voices and inspiration to aspiring poets, and lovers of writing, like me.
Akbar also maintains a website called DiveDapper, where he interviews contemporary poets about their process and their lives. Check it out!