Thoughtful, engaging, and arresting.
A ticking clock diligently marks the unflinching forward march of time, but B. L. Bruce takes a more organic approach in her elemental poetry collection, Blue California Sky. Tender buds, fallen snow, and fledgling birds chronicle the passage of time, while emphatic verse touches hearts and journeys through the quotidian experiences that assuredly shape our lives. Nature’s dynamism, majesty, subtlety, and freedom invite readers to pause and reflect on such graceful threads of human connection, despite personal hardships. A few poems embody desire and longing with stirring expressions such as, “In the beginning, I consumed you”. Unmitigated hunger crumbles into desperation and despair as new love fades into a dull patina of its once-glistening self. The emotion is penetrating yet relatable as we read, “I called out your name. Your side of the bed was cold.” Grief is another affliction the author highlights and heightens with well-chosen words. Who among us can’t relate to the helplessness we feel when we observe others endure crippling loss? “I saw the way grief entered your body—all at once and consuming—and stayed, eating you away.” The author’s terse style is impactful and intense, an emotional experience for audiences who are willing to open themselves up to it.
Bruce’s unfiltered voice cuts through life’s distracting background noise and settles in a place not limited to the physical plane. Reverence for plants, animals, the human body, and Earth’s elegant, predictable cycles ground the work, while painfully guarded traumas resonate deeply. A range of sensitive topics forms the tender framework of this verisimilar collection, though none more affecting than the poem “Roses on the state park overpass”. A painfully honest reflection on what might lead a person down the dark path toward irreparable self-harm, it concludes with the heartbreaking line, “I wondered if the woman chose to fall faceup, hoping for one last glimpse of blue sky.” You might rightly anticipate sadness in a book like this. Still, a poem that describes a pair of hawks being forced from their home hits even harder than expected, artfully representing the ongoing toll of change. Thoughtful, engaging, and arresting, B. L. Bruce’s transportive poetry reminds readers of places they’ve been and prepares them for where they’re going, while gently honoring the understated beauty surrounding all of us.
