Into the Forest and All the Way Through - Tragic Poetry of Missing Women
Once I picked this up, I was unable to put it down. Dark, heartfelt poetry about women who have gone missing in the US over the years. Some whose remains have been located, but most who have remained a mystery as time continues to bury their memories.
I was absolutely stricken by the thought and emotion that went into these poems. Each one is generally brief and poignant, always ending with the missing person's name, location, race, age, missing since date, case status, and the phone number of the investigating agency.
The poems touch on women with big dreams who were ravaged and ripped from their lives and the aching people they left behind. Children who were snatched from their parents. Children who were snatched by their parents. Women of all ages, haunted by stalkers until they themselves become the ones who haunt. The most horrifying parts displayed the lack of repercussions when the attackers were people with power and influence. The women of colour being especially left by the wayside due to 'lack of interest' or the label of being 'high-risk.' Within these pages, Cynthia Pelayo writes, "High-risk, that's what police call it when they insinuate Your murder was meant to be, justified."
The poems that were my 'favorite,' that is, the ones that filled me with the most grief and heartache, were: "The Demons You Live With," "Lady of the Lake," "Highway Storage," "Down the Hill," "Abandoned Buildings," "No Success, No Surrender," "Silence Within Your Walls," "The Newspaper Bleeds," "Private.First.Class," and the one that I will never, ever forget and can already recount to anyone from memory alone, "Doe-Eyed."
This is an important read. I think everyone should read it. Buy it. Give it to your friends and family. Everyone should feel what it is meant to make us all feel: sorrow, horror, fear, and a need for justice and equality. As Pelayo so evocatively wrote in this painful collection, "It's Time to scream her name Into the universe so that Her blood may vibrate With the knowing of Your longing for her."
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