“No Roots Attached: Honest Poems for Curious Souls” by Elena Carter

“words are not what they seem”

I have no way of knowing if what I read in the poems by Elena Carter in her newest poetry collection “No Roots Attached: Honest Poems for Curious Souls” is what the author meant when writing these words. I think it’s not that important. What is important is that this line from the poem ‘Look Deeper’ spoke right to me, echoing the thoughts I’ve been contemplating.

Poetry, in my opinion, should be felt, not understood.

The same is true about fiction books – in my humble opinion, of course. They aren’t about in which chapter the main characters met, or how many chapters it took for their friendship or love or hatred to develop. They aren’t about how many paragraphs are devoted to landscape description and what portion of the page is dedicated to dialogue. In fiction, the written word is about what it makes the reader feel.

I was feeling a whole lot when reading these poems. My feelings stirred like tree branches in the wind and rippled like a disturbed water surface. They also changed from poem to poem. And here, the author echoed my thoughts again, like she did throughout the book.

“Change is the only constant you can be sure of So don’t let it knock you off your feet” The Only Constant.

There were things in this book that I could relate to, but wished that I couldn’t. Like this line from the poem ‘Allergies’: “But I can’t be around hypocrites anymore. It causes me indigestion and breathing issues.”

There were things that I wish to believe with all my heart, but which life shows me to be true only seldom. Like this line – “Kindness is contagious” – from the poem ‘Contagious.’

There were poems that told me of the realities of life, like this one “and time always wins” from the poem ‘Waiting.’

But above all, Elena Carter’s words reminded me that reality isn’t harsh. Reality is what it is. And also, it is what we make of it. How we see our life depends on us. It should be used as an anchor, for life is a turbulent sea where, save for our perception, we can control little else – and even that we are capable of doing only partially.

So, my resolution and a wish to everyone is to take the words from the poem ‘Blessings’ to heart and pull them out from a memory drawer whenever it becomes too tough.

“For now, I’ll just be grateful to wake up and get to have another day on this planet. What a blessing it is to live.”