A review by seebrandyread
Anodyne by Khadijah Queen

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Anodyne–something that heals or soothes pain, a medicine. Perhaps, if taken too far, something that dilutes or deadens. What pains the narrators of Khadijah Queen’s poetry is sometimes clear, sometimes not. Fear/threat of apocalypse. A depressed child. Existential angst. Fibromyalgia. It’s also both clear and unclear what eases this pain. Family. Language. Reading or writing these poems. Queen seems most interested in the words themselves, the images they evoke, their sounds and connotations, less concerned with literal representation than encouraging the reader to have their own experience and interpretation of her words. Her poems are also elusive because of her use and rejection of punctuation and her awareness of poetry as a visual format. No two poems look alike even when the difference is as subtle as line spacing. She plays with forms as a way to subvert meaning and to call on her poetic influences including three grid poems in the style of Mark McMorris that place lines and space in differently-shaped grids to create poems with a choose-your-own-adventure feel. This collection is ultimately about life in its physical and spiritual forms. It’s about the ways we keep our bodies alive by caring for them directly or by finding the will to keep them alive. They’re also about the living, breathing nature of language and how it can be a burden or boon to our survival.