Weekly Reader: Hollow: A Love Like a Life by Jazalyn; Haunting Lyrical Poetry of Love and Separation By Distance, Time, and Death

 

Weekly Reader: Hollow: A Love Like a Life by Jazalyn; Haunting Lyrical Poetry of Love and Separation By Distance, Time, and Death

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: We come to the second of Jazalyn's book of poetry. Its predecessor, VVIIRRUUSS was a science fiction themed story that really spoke of the importance of memories, emotion, and aspects of the human experience.

The second book, Hollow: A Love Like Life is a ghost story disguised as a meditation on love and separation. 

We aren't told about the ghosts themselves, who they were in life, where they are from, their names, or even if they are male and female. 

We are however told in the poem, "Qualms," that they are "A ghost spirit in the dark/Is dreaming of the light/Of a ghost of the light/Traveling in dangerous skies."

Despite  living in different phases of light and darkness, the two ghosts fall in love.

In "I Love In You," one of the ghosts contemplates their infatuation with the other ghost. They say, "What I love in you/And that I am half/Without you;/You are my soul's start/My heart's end/But who I really am?" 

The ghost questions why they are in love and how they aren't sure that they know themselves what the emotions mean. They also question the practicality of loving someone that exists in a different plane of existence and can barely communicate with each other.

The ghost realizes that this love is "haunted" and unwise, but love is rarely practical or concrete. Jazalyn's poems show how strong the emotion of love can be and how it sometimes counters reason.

The ghosts find a secret language to share where they are able to send visual impressions and emotions.

 In "Enlightened Soul," they realize that in finding each other, they found that light that they need. One lover tells the other, "I fell in love with you/And I saw the light;/You liked me/And light found me."

The poems are filled with metaphors of light and darkness, polar opposites but that exist together. The ghosts are like that, opposites but able to exist together.

 The ghost's love for each other and desperate attempts to form an emotional connection make this the strongest of Jazalyn's poetry books in terms of character.

In the poem, "Dark & Light," the ghost lovers realize that they need each other, that they complete each other. They fill voids in one another's afterlives. The ghost from the darkness says "Maybe, I need your light/Maybe you need my dark/Because secretly/In our deepest quests/I might see more light/And you might see more dark."

Not only are the ghosts physically attracted to each other, or each one possess something that the other needs, but they are mentally connected. It's a meeting of minds in which they could learn from each other as in"After Loving You" , "I want you as my mentor/As my guide;/You could transform my life/Learning besides you/And it's not about/The material goods/But the intellectual values/I never learned."

The ghosts are able to capture flickers of each other and to communicate verbally so they share consciousness. It should be wonderful, but it still leads to questions, confusion, and dilemmas over what the nature of love actually is and whether it's permanent or temporary. One ghost ruminates about their partner in "Bipolar," "You are attractive/But my love for you/Is bipolar;/Sometimes I feel for you/Sometimes I crucify you/I don't know if you really love me/And these signs/I think you're sending me/Might be for another one." Love can seem like a form of insanity when the one in love is filled with suspicion and doubt whether it's real, whether the other lover is thinking about someone else, or whether their feelings are permanent.

The ghosts understand that they can be their best and worst selves in front of each other and they won't be judged. That's the essence of happiness with an emotional connection, being comfortable. One says in "Who I Really Am", "Right from the start/I expose/All my flaws/And I tell you/This is me/If you don't like me/Don't love me/I don't need a love/That is based on lies…."

They both have changed because of their love. One dressed all in black, gray, and neutrals. Then they dressed in bright colors. "I might be wrong," they say in "I Changed After Loving You," "But you must have a spark for me/Even temporarily/I hope it won't be lost/And I know it won't/Because I changed after loving you." The difference in the poems is that the right one will accept one for who they really are but they can also help them experience new things and change for the better.

The two realize that their love is a spiritual one that makes them feel enlightened. "We meet in the spiritual-/I admire your enlightened state-/That's why I love you/And want to be close to you," the ghosts say in "Enlightened Love." They are physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually connected. They discovered that the true source of light is to be enlightened. 

Hollow is not hollow or empty. Instead, it is filled with poems about connections, spirituality, and above all love.