Award-winning singer and songwriter Tiki Black blends her multicultural assets to create intricate lyrics and memorable music. Tiki now bares her soul with her first book, The Sound Of The Broken Wand, a beautifully written collection of poems (and one essay) and a unique accompaniment to her sophomore album. The artist weaves the wealth of her experience into each line, encouraging and celebrating the magic of human emancipation, as it breaks the spell of survival and allows us to experience the infinite possibilities of life. The book explore the underlying themes in worldwide folk tales that accompanied our growth or may have accidentally hindered it.
The collection of poems (and one essay) encourages us to emancipate and break the wands of survival to allow for creative growth and freedom. The pieces are centred around 6 themes implicitly present in stories: the blood (representing life and death), the cage (representing prison and refuge), the mirror (reflection and deflection), the crown (power and duty/debt), the shoe (journeys and unbeaten paths) and the wand (bewitchment and magic).
Award-winning singer and songwriter Tiki Black blends her multicultural assets to create intricate lyrics and memorable music. Tiki now bares her soul with her first book, The Sound Of The Broken Wand, a beautifully written collection of poems (and one essay) and a unique accompaniment to her sophomore album. The artist weaves the wealth of her experience into each line, encouraging and celebrating the magic of human emancipation, as it breaks the spell of survival and allows us to experience the infinite possibilities of life. The book explore the underlying themes in worldwide folk tales that accompanied our growth or may have accidentally hindered it.
The collection of poems (and one essay) encourages us to emancipate and break the wands of survival to allow for creative growth and freedom. The pieces are centred around 6 themes implicitly present in stories: the blood (representing life and death), the cage (representing prison and refuge), the mirror (reflection and deflection), the crown (power and duty/debt), the shoe (journeys and unbeaten paths) and the wand (bewitchment and magic).
As a songwriter, perhaps, the poems in this collection could have seemed more compelling and impacful had they been performed by the poet herself. Oral narratives are not less than or inferior to other kinds of narratives, they are simply different. The significance of these compositions seem to rely heavily on their execution, mainly their intonation, accent, deliberate pauses and diction. Much of these nuances are lost in the written form.
The absence of any innate cadence or rhythm comes off as jarring than purposeful. Some enjambments are so abrupt, the reader is left confused as to their meaning. They need more contextualising, further elaboration but also control over the flow of lines. Some poems become too wordy, going on for pages, unable to keep the reader effortlessly engaged till the end. (Example - The Faces of Magic). The overall experience of reading this book was, therefore, quite underwhelming.
It is important to note that there are two major parts in a poem that one has to consider when reviewing - the content or subject and the form. While the subjects of these poems are definitely strong and intense as they deal with emancipation, greater than life experiences; it seems that the Foreword places them on a pedestal that builds undue expectations in the readers. As a result of which, the poems pale in comparison. Instead of appreciating the poetry before letting the reader judge them, it would be more interesting to have a little background and context behind the poet's choice of words or style, allowing the poems to speak for themselves.
Having said that, one must admit that the juxtaposition of musical notes with poetry is innovative. The fact that the collection also includes an essay makes it even more unique as the essay deals with an abstract idea of the colour blue, seemingly setting it apart from the rest of the poetry by its prosaic form and reminding us of The Bluets by Maggie Nelson. Good attempt!