Mouthful of Forevers

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Mostly it just feels banal and too obvious. There were no epiphanies, no surprises, and very few places where I thought “Huh, that’s interesting”. It presented life to me in a way that felt familiar and therefore trivial. It kept pushing to break boundaries, to be honest, but fell short almost every time and landed squarely in “well known and too worn” territory. Short and forgettable. Poetry tends to be very hit and miss with me, especially collections that are incredibly personal for authors. Those stories are, of course, always important to tell. But I've come to realize that my enjoyment of poetry boils down to two things. First, how well I understand said poetry. Because if I'm being completely honest, sometimes it flies right over my head. And second, if I can relate to it. I've found that most of my favorite poetry, like the quote featured above, is poetry that I can relate to. Each poem feels loosely held together by a common theme: heartache. But it isn't a lyrical prose, it isn't well woven or impactful. It is just angry; angry to the point of not making much sense. In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive is a two-part collection that synthesizes some tough material into a well-curated examination of survival, trauma, heartbreak, grief, and hope. Von Radic runs the gamut of common themes explored in contemporary poetry so when I began reading the collection, I worried that they wouldn’t have anything new to say. Ultimately, Part I did not distinguish itself to me. Part II, on the other hand, PART II. von Radics: (laughs) Sure. I’ve got a lot of them. I have this dove on a brand of Gibson guitar that reminds me of the Gibson guitar my dad had growing up, so I’ve got this dove tattoo. I have a knife tattoo, which is a friendship tattoo with my best friend. My third favorite is “yes, I will, yes.” It’s the last line of James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses,’ which is my mother’s favorite book.

A number of the poems are lyrical without being purple and empowering without making me inwardly cringe. In retrospect, it did feel something like a daydream in its pretty pose and whimsical delivery. However, the real selling point for me was that most, if not all, of the poems felt as though it could be relevant to a number of scenarios. Quite often I feel as though poetry demands a lot of me. It tells me how to feel, forces me into experiencing situations I don't want to relive or haven't experienced and wouldn't want to, to satisfy the catharsis the author hopes to share with me. This didn't feel like that. This anthology felt versatile enough to allow me to put whatever spin I wanted to on the meaning behind some of the poems, to feel however I wanted to about them and to extrapolate ideas to my own situations, or not, if that's what felt right in the moment. Poems from her first chapbook “As Often As Miracles” were adapted into a song cycle by Stephen Schwartz, which was performed at Carnegie Hall in May 2016. She has toured across Europe and the U.S. with Alex Dang on "The Love and Whiskey Tour" She lent her writing to a series of notebooks designed by Sterling Giftbooks. von Radics is the author of two collections, “Mouthful of Forevers” and “Dream Girl”, both are available through Where Are You Press, online and in bookstores worldwide. Von Radic’s imagery and thoughts are so potent and fresh. They upset the inertia that I feel around contemporary poetry. Only a few poems in Part I hit me in the same way such as “A conversation between my therapist and the mouth that sometimes belongs to me”. VOX: You tell your story with so much honesty. I think that’s really brave. For people who are writing and trying to open up about their stories, what would you say to them? I LOVED For Those Like Me, with Hearts Like Kindling, That Spring Everything Grew Wild and the Rain Came Down Like Punishment, Morning Haiku, Mermaid, The First Time You Washed Up at Our Door.I own all of their books, "Dream Girl" being my favourite. I think I was looking for "In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive" to make me feel like "Dream Girl" did. And why wouldn't it! The title is a damn Holzer truism for crying out loud. The cover is gorgeous. eARC provided by the publisher for an honest review, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own* This is the first poetry collection I read by Clementine von Radics and I liked it. There were some beautiful poems I could relate to and I liked that Clementine was really raw and honest. III. The last time I tried to scream I felt my father climbing up through my throat and into my mouth.

I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know how much I can focus on questions like that. I think I can focus on trying to be a good writer…and trying to explore being a good and decent person, and woman, and queer woman.”

Mesmerizing Mermaid Haikus

I’m not sure what to say about change except that it reminds me of the Bible story with the lions’ den. But you are not named Daniel and you have not been praying, so God lets the beasts get a few deep, painful swipes at you before the morning comes and you’re pulled into the light, exhausted and cut to shit. I can't say enough good things about this. It's totally refreshing to read a poetry book that has me highlighting at least one line from every single poem. My favorite was probably her poem called "Advice to Teenage Girls/with Wild Ambitions/and Trembling Hearts," which is a one about the world's teenage, female heroes that made me cry instantaneously. Here’s the first stanza: It's not the matter of what you tell but how you tell. This one is a good example. I'm a huge anti of inspiring/confessional poems as much as a fan so it's important the way you choose. Like nowadays they sound similar but not trying to be an anthem which is so lame (usually under of minimal poem.) von Radics: I don’t know. I don’t know how much I can focus on questions like that. I think I can focus on trying to be a good writer and trying to be a good person — which informs your writing — and trying to explore being a good and decent person, and woman, and queer woman. There’s times that you fail at that and don’t know what that looks like, and I mostly hope to accomplish telling my own story. Whatever that ends up being. Sometimes your mermaid poems come in the sweetest stanzas… perfect for cards, captions and texts to your ocean loving friends.

This morning I woke up so in love with you I didn’t know what to do with my body, which was far from yours. Her 2015 poem ‘For Teenage Girls’ went viral on YouTube with the words, “you don’t have to grow up to find greatness. You are so much stronger than the world ever believed you could be.” von Radics: What was I like as a teenager? [laughs] I was scared and lonely. Nerdy. I really, really loved art. And I was very, very excited to be a grown-up. I had a couple of friends that I still really, really love that I knew as a teenager. Definitely, the best years of my life have been since I was a teenager.

See a Problem?

Author’s voice from then and now, of course, had changed immensely! It was divided into two parts, when I began reading I had a hard time hitting the right tones of the voice. As to the experiences were not of mine personally nor I could connect with yet. It took me time to fully hit and felt emotions as to where and where it is all coming from; that was what I thought with the first part. As for the latter part, I liked it better! I felt the lyrical change and flow of the verses. Plus the good balance between the longer pieces and the short ones is something to note of. It does not come as overwhelming nor underwhelming to one. I bought Wrong Side of a Fistfight and got “Home” for free with it, which is a good thing because I might otherwise have regretted buying it. I felt much the same about this poetry collection as I did with 'Love & Misadventure', it makes the same mistakes and has many of the same flaws. To be honest, I usually prefer dark poetry. Poetry about war, anguish, bereavement, death and loss--anything that has darkness hovering over it. For some reason, I find poems about romance annoying and whiny(the only romance poems I've loved wholeheartedly are those written in form of love letters from John Keats to Fanny Brawne). In Assyrian myths, the goddess of fertility, Atargatis, cast herself into a lake and became a mermaid. As a teenage girl not a stranger to self-doubt, I let these words and the strength of generations of Malalas, Anne Franks, and Joan of Arcs wash over me every time I start something new, and I had to speak to this magical person. Here’s what Clementine von Radics had to say on bravery, writing and teenage girls.

Clementine von Radics is 24 year-old writer and publisher based in Portland, Oregon. She was born in Alameda, California and grew up in Medford, Oregon. That being said, there weren't really any poems in this that connected with me the same way as before. (Then again, sometimes it felt like "Dream Girl" was written for me alone. Just the poem about my decade long obsession, Courtney Love, hit home hard considering I read it in a room that used to be covered in her posters.) The poems felt more general than previously, and I found myself tiring from her heartbreak poems before I even really read them. With Clementine, I crave specificity. I’m never going to have a different brain. I’m always going to be this person, and so the best I can do is to be kind and to be hardworking and to live honestly.” I quite liked most of the poems in this collections. They deal with mental health, love, loss, social interactions, relationships and family. They are well written, the layout is interesting and the honesty in which issues are presented is raw yet rewarding: you can survive, life can be good.Another thing is that it’s internet poetry, it started online and I have immense respect for Von Radics for starting up Where Are You Press, it’s an amazing feat and I love what she’s trying to do with it. However, sometimes the internet bleeds into her poetry. There’s an ‘internet speak’ to it that falls completely out of place, for me, anyway, perhaps I only see it because I spend so much time on tumblr myself. And sometimes things just don’t seem to make a lot of sense? The good news is you survived. The bad news is you’re hurt and no one can heal you but yourself. You just have to find a stiff drink and a clean needle before you bleed out. And then you get up. And start over.”