Break Free
Poetry by Emmanuel Florial
Reviewed by Michelle Boucher-Ladd
The book Break Free is an
interesting collection of poetry by Emmanuel Florial. Most of the poems
seem therapeutic in nature with the positive theme of over coming
adversity, race, poverty, violence, and self-doubt.
While most of the poetry feels very young and un-worked a few poems
stand out from the rest. The two poems entitled Come on City Bus! are
particularly fine. One is written as a concrete poem while the other is
sub-titled Standard Version. What is remarkable about this poem
is that every word is relevant and it paints a very photographic type
image for the reader. The lines, “Sweat skiing across the limit of my
forehead,” and the last two lines, “For I am the namy-pamby, impatient
and unappreciative / of your journey across the route of designation.”
have an inner music to them. This poem is a snapshot of life and leaves
the reader wanting more poems that are worked through in a similar
fashion. Other poems in Break Free seem to lack the tightness
of Come on City Bus!
The imagery and adjectives in most of the poems in this collect feel
solid, however, there is a distinct lack of strong verbs that would
give this writing some punch. The strongest poems are the shorter ones.
They don’t tend to get lost in lots of small words such as is, are,
was, and did. Also, the imagery in the smaller poems is
often very beautiful. In the poem Blue Sky the first three
lines would stand on their own; “Clouds on vacation / Birds flying in
packs / Today is a beautiful day.” Sometimes the poet finds strength is
simplicity.
Perhaps one of the most wonderful things about this book is its cover.
The author writes that “the cover design is a picture of a jail cell
put under stained glass using Adobe Photoshop. It represents my soul,
which is encased by stereotypes, tradition, and prejudgment.” Emmanuel
Florial’s poetry can be described similarly. They also seemed to trying
to “break free” from “stereotypes, tradition, and prejudgment,” and
maybe that is something that will take time. Florial’s pen seems very
young an unseasoned, the poems are a bit raw but their message is a
positive one of hope. The last few pages of Break Free include
a short collection of seven poems by Patricia Florial. While these
poems are a bit more soulful than those of Emmanuel Florial they are
equally as green.