Blank verse poems that tell stories for young adults seem to be becoming more popular.  It is a difficult genre to master; there's a danger that the tale could be told just as well as a short story, putting all the blank verse into regular sentences.  There's a risk that putting the story in verse just makes it seem pretentious and overly dramatized.  There's a temptation to suspect that putting the story into verse is just a way for the publisher to get the reader to pay the price of a book for a short story.  Walking on Glass confirms all such doubts.   

A boy tells of his life now that his mother is comatose in hospital.  He is spending time with Jack, who is a bad influence.  The boy feels sick as he watches Jack beat up another boy.  The narrating boy meets a girl, Alissa, and she is a good influence.  He is seeing a therapist, Dr. Mac, but he doesn't want to open up. Yet, little by little, he does, and we learn more about why his mother is in hospital: she tried to kill herself, and had been suffering from depression for some time.  He is going to have to let her go, because there is no hope that she will wake up. 

I found these poems lacking in emotional power.  Consider one:

HONESTLY

I don't want her to die.

I just want

it all to

stop.

Does that make me

so terrible?

I don't see anything in the poetic form that adds to the content of the words, and the emotions expressed in the words are trite.  However, maybe some young readers will find this book helpful in some way, especially if they are dealing with comparable problems. 

  © 2007 Christian Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews.  His main research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Children