Review of Herrick’s Scar & Flower: California’s Favorite Poet Laureate
With so many new and emerging poets in the world today, it can be difficult to make a final decision on what to buy…and when. However, when it comes to Lee Herrick; California’s first ever Asian American to be appointed to the position of Poet Laureate, as well as the first ever Laureate to be re-appointed to the position: there is only purity of existence, because –much like two sides of the same coin– Scar and Flower, the third collection by Lee Herrick, examines how people deal with life’s duality of trauma and growth by using skillful, and tactful techniques to illustrate love, loss, and the joy in memories made.
From the very beginning of his work, Lee Herrick does an amazing job at creating a sense of accountability with his tone for the reader. On the section page for “Scar”, he uses a quote from bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions, to force the reader into taking a breath; contemplating all of the self-suffering, and unnecessary suffering we put ourselves through.
– “What we allow the mark of our suffering to become is in our own hands.”
By finding the perfect quote to not only fit the narrative, but also evoke personal struggles, Lee is already exploring the idea of how all the unseen scars we bear under our skin…well, they’re ultimately of our own design and the only way to heal is to make the decision in growing from said trauma.
But, then again, Lee Herrick has always had a way of exposing such truths. In an interview from 2018, with Rebecca Evans…where she asks if he feels a sense of responsibility to bring such truths to the surface…he responds with, “Alice Walker once said, ‘Poetry is a place for leftover love and leftover anger.’”
The poem “Wildfire”, on page 27, is a perfect example of how trauma and loss are a large part universal experiences. Even though the poem is arranged in couplets, the pace is set by diction, which influences the reader to slow down and read every word with its full weight.
– “Lightning on sequoia,
disaster
– like man strikes woman
or the stick”
This imagery, while rather strong in its depiction, illustrates the perfect idea of how some scars aren’t worn on the skin, or imbedded in flesh. They’re memories made, flashes of disaster that leave lingering effects; triggers, most of which are born from white hot anger that can––and will––burn anything it touches.
On the opposite side of the coin, and moving towards the flower––the growth aspect of the collection––readers can see new possibilities in the poem “Flight”. However, the poem capturing the essence of how growth is essential to processing trauma is “Hour”. While it’s one of the shorter poems in the collection, it––just like with the poem “Wildfire”––uses both couplet style stanzas and diction to control the pace and weigh the context.
– “down by the beach,
front cottage, warm
– bread from the oven
and you in the water”
The inferences made from such lines can only conclude fresh opportunities. Regardless of relationship, bond, and/or connection between the subject and the object of the poem, it’s obvious the two are about to spend a lifetime of growth with each other. Even after all the years of traumatic, problematic, and/or dramatic relationships…that could’ve easily led the individuals down a much different path, the couple is going to find joy in their new future.
That’s one of the best reasons to read Lee Herrick’s work. He’s always able to find the joy in the world; seeing everything unfiltered, and still choosing to nurture even the smallest of lights. In the S.L.O. Review, put on by San Luis Obispo County’s Connection to Arts and Culture, Sydnie Bierma covers “Lee Herrick Writes Poetry and Spreads Joy”. At the end of this piece, she quotes Lee with saying, “It’s not about ego, but the joy––the joy adjacent to language and discovery”, which is exactly what this collection does. It removes all ego, and leaves a hopeful joy in the hearts of those who read his work.
For those who haven’t read Lee Herrick; whether it be stand-alone works from different anthologies, or any one of his five collections: Scars and Flower, is the perfect book to get familiar with such an artist. This is going to be something that resonates for years to come, because it holds generational nuances that create both longing and yearning for life experiences.
Gregory Gonzalez graduated from Sierra Nevada University, where he earned both a BFA and an MFA in Creative Writing. He's studied under and many other wonderful artists, and his works can be seen in the San Joaquin Review Online, Hive Avenue: A Literary Journal, the Dillydoun Review, Wingless Dreamer Publishing, Bridge Eight: Film & TV, Drunk Monkeys: Literature and Film, Causeway Literature, Nat 1 LLC, Vermilion Literature, Writing Workshops, and Havik Literary Journal.
