User:DanielleMikaelian

Review of Rare Sun by Danielle Mikaelian:

Susan Barba’s enrapturing poetry collection Fair Sun evokes memories and moments that reach back from the present into the early 1900s. Emphasizing this, Barba chooses to incorporate details about her Armenian heritage and even the perspective of other generations to plunge readers into realities beyond those of their own. For example, part two of the book begins with the poem “Andranik,” which is based off of conversations Barba had with her grandfather. However, it is important to note that the majority of the recounted moments are not necessarily joyful. Barba’s book focuses on preservation, as she seeks to communicate the importance of remembering the past and utilizing the past to positively impact the present.

Moreover, the entire book acts as a reflective lens showcasing a clear dichotomy between progress and the parts of the past that will always remain. The grandfather’s conversation, for instance, touches upon his poignant memories of the Armenian Genocide, as Barba was determined to preserve the struggles of her ancestors and actively worked to write down this content before he passed away. The poem featuring their conversation uniquely spans nine pages and features dialogue between the narrator and her grandfather without any type of “fluff.” For instance, at one point, the narrator asks, “What did they do to your father, Papa” to which the grandfather forlornly replies “They killed.” This entire section has a very unique format, as it only encapsulates the grandfather’s story and their conversation, which is broken up across pages somewhat jarringly. Moreover, Barba does not add in any personal enhancements, which means that the poem reads more as a free flowing conversation than any possible form of abstraction. However, it is important to note that she pays extreme attention to detail, as seen through the moment she recounts her grandfather described a hatchet as “long-handled, wooden-handled and here like this...sharp, to cut wood, to cut things” (42). In this way, Barba reaches beyond the typical perception of poetry, creating a new type of poetic style that reads like dialogue but features poignant, randomized line breaks and probing questions from the narrator that emphasize details of the past.

Susan Barba does not only rely on the creation of images, but also relies on the incorporation of distinct voices, as seen through the character of the grandfather. As such, Susan Barba’s book uniquely presents a variety of poetic forms, transitioning from more standard poems in section one to a dialogue oriented, lengthy poem in section two, and then shifting back to more standard poetry formatting in the last section. She effectively preserves the brutality experienced by her ancestors decades ago while showing the impact of their sacrifices. To disclose the latter, she touches upon her present day experiences and even links them to her heritage and its significance, as evinced through poems like “Yerevan — New York — Yerevan — New York.” Although many of Barba’s poems are situated in the United

States, this placement only serves as a further reminder of how important it is to remember your heritage and the sacrifices others have undergone for you. Even further, her poems act as a reminder of how we should live our lives — in a way that honors the struggles of those in the past but emphasizes what we can do for our communities in the future.

By: Danielle Mikaelian