Softly Glowing Exit Signs feels exactly like spending hours, being up all night, with a person bearing their soul, to which all you can be is silent, and listen, and all you can say is, “Thanks for sharing all of this with me.
Softly Glowing Exit Signs feels exactly like spending hours, being up all night, with a person bearing their soul, to which all you can be is silent, and listen, and all you can say is, “Thanks for sharing all of this with me.
My mother is not at the sink
not with eyes sunken
or a frilly apron
it’s my brother at the stovetop
aged eight, frying fish
while I am upstairs
with the door closed
I am counting
all I do is practice
I can’t zipper zips
or button buttons
for the test I have coming up
to get into kindergarten
I am worrying when the grease fire
explodes
I can just hear my brother calling
get out of the house!
as he runs through the back door
but I can't make out his words
so I ignore them
the smoke makes its way to my room
I don’t notice until the firemen come
and I don’t notice
that all the other kids can read
until the teacher
separates me from them
and asks if I’m even trying
Softly Glowing Exit Signs is Georgia Park’s second collection of poetry and, in my humble opinion, is even better than the first. Her first collection was witty, pithy and touching and Park established herself as a voice for the 21st century. Softly Glowing Exit Signs not only continues to secure Park’s place as a must-read, modern poet, but it demonstrates how much Park’s writing has matured since the first collection; how much she has had to overcome and master in the years between the releases.
The sections of this collection chart change and experience. Park’s writing is far more sincere and heartwrenching. She wields great skill with the written word - most notably shown in the two short stories included in this collection. Park harnesses our fears and weaves them into compelling pieces of fiction; and I would argue that Softly Glowing Exit Signs is worth reading just for these.
Park also remains a writer I can read and read and read. Her style is unique and will fight against any box you attempt to put it in. Thus, I read this collection in one sitting and have since returned to some of my favourites: Decor and Decorum, which also appeared in her first collection, Late and For How Stupid I Was, & Lost.
It is difficult to sum up Park’s style because in many ways it is ever changing, from piece to piece. What Park does always achieve, however, is capturing raw humanity in her stories and poems. She is so well-versed in human nature, the reader, perhaps quite frighteningly, shall always find themselves in her words.