Journey of a Hundred Years is the fifth full poetry collection by Ida Fasel. From beginning to end, she employs the terse form of the cinquain, a five line stanza of two, four, six, eight, and two syllables, to explore different topics. Writing in the same form throughout all ten chapters could have made the tone monotonous, but Fasel uses enjambment and a variety of themes from angels to Zen to keep the perspective fresh. Some of the cinquains stand alone on a single page while others are linked together to create layered pieces. Sometimes, even within these layered pieces, one cinquain would soar above the others as in this stanza from "Subtle Season": Autumn/ choreographs/ a dance so difficult,/ all a leaf on toe point can do/ is fall.

I would recommend this collection to: someone who enjoys reading clear, concise poetry or someone who would like to learn more about cinquains by seeing its form put to paper by an accomplished poet. I think this Fasel's poetry should be read as she suggests in these lines from "Ars Poetica": Between/ lines where white shows/ on the pages, reading is/ best. Linger. The poet gives and/ holds back. Her style feels natural, and not forced for the sake of fitting the form. Her stanzas seem to flow effortlessly from one to the next, yet there are pauses where the reader can ponder one cinquain before moving on.

This review has taken me longer to write than any other review I've ever written because I would refer to the book to recall a certain line or stanza and end up reading all of the poems again. That's how much Fasel's poetry and her elliptic style influences me. This collection will be enjoyed time and again. I leave you with this one last cinquain to savor from Journey of a Hundred Years: Will I/ come to the bridge,/ will I make the last hard/ inch, the difficult full distance/ across?

Poppy Hullings

"Journey of a Hundred Years" by Ida Fasel (Catalog #18051) can be ordered from Thaddeus books:
http://www.thaddeusbooks.com/poetry.htm