Kathrine Yets

“iLearn, iTeach

ISBN: 978-93-90601-55-4

Reviewed by LB Sedlacek

This new poetry book is split up into two sections “iLearn” and “iTeach.” Yets uses an unusual way to title her book. Using the title to delineate the different parts incorporates it in a meaningful way to the book’s overall presentation. Titles are often overlooked and maybe even skipped in favor of diving right into a poem or story, but especially in a poem and/or book they tell so much.

The poems are almost all free verse. There is a bit of prose here and there.

In the first section, iLearn, she offers personal poems with perspectives that match the subject themselves. For instance, in the poem “Little Me,” she talks of childhood nicknames, how people like to perhaps change things to fit their own perceptions such as taking a more proper formal name and shortening it to something else.

In “Week of my Loins” she uses the lines of “It’s hard to focus when her subconscious / is always looking for a mother” and “You know there’s a problem when she’s eating popsicles in the / bathroom.” This poem describes a child dealing with a mother with mental issues.

In the poem “Unlove” she begins the poem with these lines: “My father’s eyes pool behind / John Lennon glasses. / Your mother did not love me.” This poem speaks of learning what love isn’t.

In iTeach, the poems live up to the section name. The poems appear to teach something, a lesson, about life, or however you wish to interpret it. It is fun to simply go on this path of discovery with the poet to see what you are going to learn within the lines.

From the poem “Ray”:
“A name like neon bar lights and Sprite on the tongue—fizzle.
A name that pushes me back to preteen spin-the-bottle
first (or second?) kiss.
The “What Would Raymond Do?” mentality
of my middle school years,
trying so hard to be like the boy next door.
He so kool, I thought to myself as smoke swirled in the air
and my stick legs dangled off the porch swing.”

These poems are soaking in scrumptious visuals. Yets writes in such a way that offers connection, the one thing many people are lacking and seem to spend a lot of time seeking.

She offers up a mirror into the soul, so to speak. She rocks the senses. She really reaches out to the reader’s core and heart in this book.