Whiskey Words & a Shovel II

Interlude for the survivor.

the pain means you're alive the scars mean you've always survived

Whiskey Words & a Shovel II by r.h. Sin is the author's second collection of poetry. Mr. Sin is a minimalist when it comes to a biography -- An old Facebook page, a closed Twitter account, and an Instagram account with plenty of pictures of his poems.

Sometimes great things happen by accident. I saw this book and immediately started it. A few years ago I read a similar sounding collection called The Shovel and The Hare and assumed this was the sequel. I was wrong but wrong in the best way.

Poetry, for many, is something that offers a warm embrace either with love, nature, or observations on life. Sin offers an embrace that is more of a bear hug, or a gentle tap with a 12lb hammer. As with his public biography, Sin is also a minimalist with his words. Many poems are a few lines but hit deeper than paragraphs or pages. Counterfeit love, loss, and pain run deep in this collection. But, it is not depressing; it is more of a sharing. For all the readers share the same experiences to some extent, the same feelings; you are not alone is the message. Sin gives the reader a blinding white light of emotion and awakens our own memories.

Sin gives advice perhaps it is selfish or maybe it is altruistic. Women must take charge of their lives stop being the person a man wants you to be. Start being the person you deserve to be. Be your own person not an attachment to a male. One might guess Sin is a woman proclaiming liberation, but Sin is male. Perhaps he is the man who has seen too many women he holds in esteem fall and fall again for the wrong person -- Treated poorly, not appreciated, not allowed to be who they are.

There are a few "happy" poems. One I shared with a friend, who responded along the lines of true but facile. That reaction had me look again at the poem and the collection. I thought it was a clearing in the darkness of the collection, but after some thought, yes it did seem trite. Why does the happy poem seem so shallow compared to the depth of the others? My reflections took me to the opening line of Anna Karenina: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Happiness seems to be the same. If someone is happy the reason is not important. Sadness or loss requires explanation. It sits deeper in our being and is not fleeting like happiness. Loss or death takes much longer to get past than happiness. People refer to moments of happiness and an eternity of struggle. We want happiness while we endure the struggles of life. We create mental and emotional records that last our entire lives. They are scars that offer proof that we endured and survived. Deeply emotional, dark, realistic, and a moving collection. Perhaps the most stimulating collection I have read in a long time.

Excellent collection!

3 1/2 stars Reviewing Whiskey Words & a Shovel is a different task from all of my previous reviews. It’s a book of poetry and while I love poetry, both to read and write, I am frequently intimidated by the act of critiquing reviewing it (yes, I used to belong to a poetry workshop and did critiquing so that might have been a slip of the er keyboard).

These days my favorite poet is Mary Oliver and I buy or get on loan any offering of hers. Her poetry seems simple, but there is always that word or phrase that makes you jump as if you were about to be bitten by a snake. It’s simple, but deceptive. The reason why I mention this is because R.H. Sin’s poems are also simple and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. The wording is simple. The meaning is simple. They can be inspirational. They can dwell in angst. What they lack, that just separates them significantly from Mary Oliver’s poems, is that moment of “aha.”

For some reason as I was reading, I remembered a book of poetry I found by Rod McKuen who was evidently extremely popular in the late 60’s and early 70’s. His poems were very sincere. And, I guess I felt that way about this collection.

I feel that these are the kinds of poems you might read during a difficult relationship or after a break-up. You will relate to these poems then. There are some common truths here: you will be feeling bad a lot, awake, and he will be asleep. This is kind of heart-wrenching and I guess that this is what this book embodies for me. Many truths about relationships, whether they are good or bad. I guess I wish that there was something more, that elusive “aha” that gives it all sense. But maybe with relationships, most of it’s already been said, because we do dwell on it. Maybe instead of “ahas” we have straightforward.

from read closely

you miss the person you thought

he was

you’re in love with everything

he used to be

you hold on because your love

is unconditional

you’re up thinking about him

wanting his attention

maybe a text, a call, maybe you

just want to lay up and cuddle

but he’s always doing this

he’s rarely around and it hurts

that’s what keeps you up at

night

you’re hurting right now and

he’s probably asleep

I was given an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I came upon this book while I was browsing for new poetry books at Netgalley. I love poetry so much and I'm the type to immerse myself in poems of all sorts.

Sin's poetry is simple yet deep and also straight to the point. It hits the bullseye of feels. No matter what situation you are in, you are sure to find one that is applicable to you in Whiskey Words & a Shovel. I've read a poem about going through and past distance just to get to the one you love.

long distance.
I'd kill the distance to get to you

It sounds very simple, I know. Yet, it is something that I'm battling right now, long distance relationship. I was actually on the verge of tears as I read this poem late last night, missing my significant other from 8,000 miles away. Sin's poems aren't entirely about romantic love alone. It also promotes self-love, something that I need to learn. But, I'm giving this only 3 stars because I think I was looking for something light and more inspiring. Some of the poems tend to be repetitive of their subject, I think. I still like it nonetheless. :)

One of my favorites:

reality.
you're unhappy you've been feeling neglected you've been taken for granted and yet you still find ways and or create several excuses as to why you stay in reality you've been holding on to nothing so if in this moment you decided to walk away you'd lose them and at the same time you'd lose nothing you'd gain peace you'd lose them yet find yourself

I must admit it was the title of this book by RH Sin that attracted me when I was doing one of my “random picks.” Whiskey, Words and a Shovel II. That conjures up so many possibilities, most of which involve drunken arguments, an error in judgement and a body wrapped in a carpet in the boot of the car...again. Or is that just me? Anyway, it got me to pick up the book, which turned out to be a collection of poetry about love, loss, resignation, resentment, pain and the endurance of spirit.

That may sound schmaltzy but believe me it isn’t. The poetry here all comes across with wonderfully negative emotions. Hearts have been broken. There’s more of a bitterness to the bittersweet memories of lost loves and even the poems that are, on the surface, positive and supporting manage somehow to come across with the same hollow clang as these “sunrise meadows” motivational posters that are mean to make you feel good but, instead, highlight the sorry state you are in with empty platitudes. He also picks up on the shallowness of popular culture and the desperation of some people to have that picture perfect life that all the glossy mags and self-help books refer to, instead trying to convince the reader that they really are worth more than needing to know “how to keep your man”. It doesn’t work of course, mo amount of telling will increase a person’s self-worth until they start to believe it, and it’s this “I’ve been there, so you don’t have to” that makes the emptiness, the vicariousness, hit home even harder.

In several cases, his work reminds me of Twitterature in style, with some poems being only two lines long but still managing to punch the breath from you with the sheer depth of feeling in there. For example, the full poem “long distance”:

I’d kill the distance
to get to you.

That’s it. Two lines. Eight words. Is this a threat? A promise? A current lover who would do anything to reunite with his long distance partner or a jilted lover, bent on revenge, who would hunt their former partner down no matter where they tried to hide? There’s so much can be read into those eight words that you could fill volumes with the stories. Talking of filling volumes, I must also mention the choice of typeface, a trivial thing you may think but, in this case, very effective as the “typewriter” look chosen gave the book a real feeling of being a “collection” of single sheets, typed at a time of heightened emotion and then stuffed in a folder or a drawer to be brought out and collated at a later date once the rawness of feeling has passed.

If you want your poetry to rhyme and scan, with epithets of love, fulfilment and happiness, this is not the book for you. If, however, you want some modern, highly emotive imagery that will break your head and put your heart through a wringer, that you will by turns empathise with totally then feel guiltily glad this isn’t you, I highly recommend this collection. Who knows, you may not even need the shovel any more... but you’ll always need the Whiskey.