Review of Scott Ferry's "The Long Blade of Days Ahead"

 

Scott Ferry, The Long Blade of Days Ahead (Impspired, 2022) 122 pages, poetry, $9.99.

This collection comes from those emotions or states of being we tend to struggle with integrating into our experience as humans. 

It starts with anxiety. Poems like "4/26":

"so I better just be ok

be ok be ok I better just be"

set the tone. But it soon becomes apparent that the anxiety likely stems from grief. Many are the poems exploring Ferry's journey with learning to accept and move forward with the death of his father as a father himself. 

"4/1"

i miss my father most

when my son screams

daddy and runs to me

with so many years

in his hands

The natural human tendency to confusion in the face of these overwhelming emotions is seen here too. Ferry mocks and belittles faith. At the same time, he often speaks of ghosts and hauntings, believing that his father is visiting him in his afterlife state. Yet he seems not to be aware of the contradiction inherent in holding both these viewpoints at the same time. All of this holds true to the illogical emotional noise that accompanies grief and anxiety. 

And it all makes for some intriguing poetic moments. Overall, this is a collection worth buying and reading.