“Sabrina Parr’s work delves into worlds of destruction and deterioration, but through lenses of admiration described via language. Parr’s ability to take these images of mass deterioration and flip it into something that contains beauty in some way is done so artfully that you may be forced to read it multiple times.
A cyclical nature is apparent in Parr’s piece, ‘Tinted Lens.’ Parr writes about the beauty which can be seen through a lens — ‘We stare down the lens of whatever’ is a line that’s broad, and yet specific enough that the audience can relate it to whatever they would like.
This piece continues to fill us with excitement and feelings of admiration as she follows up with the line, ‘to love the contents that construct us.’ Here the audience is allowed to feel admiration for what they are viewing, or quite possibly themselves. While it is open to multiple interpretations, the overall message remains positive, however.
Parr surprises her audience again with a beautiful turn. She circles back to the beginning of the poem by using similar language that portrays the ideas of visuals, and then hits us with, ‘the body lit up, needled, electric.’ While it could be said that this last line is not necessarily meant to be a negative image, it is beautifully eerie.
Since it contains the words ‘body’ and ‘electric,’ it brings the audience to the image of an electric chair. This would lead to the complete destruction of the body, right down to the very bones of the individual. Whether it is the admiration of the town or of the body, it is followed by the destruction of them.
The collection of pieces that Parr has chosen for this chapbook is just the beginning for her. Parr’s artistry and innovative work proves that while she is still a budding writer, she is capable of crafting pieces that keeps her audience intrigued and stimulated.”
— Jess Jordan, Former JFR Managing Editor
The following three poems were hand-picked by Sabrina Parr, showcasing the talent found in her recent chapbook, Letters to the Girl Forged from Glass and Gold.
Tinted Lens Cento
Though the eye catches the light best,
we stare down the lens of whatever.
If you look closely you can see a pattern
turning iridescent, turning black.
Your irises reflect tinted light,
allowing the space you fill
to love the contents that construct us,
all odd angles and eminent collapse.
It must have begun with a stare.
Through opera glasses,
the body lit up, needled, electric.
Lines taken from: Hadara Bar-Nadav, Jennifer Moore, Bryn Homuth, Terrance Hayes, Adam Clay, Darrell Dela Cruz, and Cassandra Hsiao.
Seaside Pomegranate
It smelled like your perfume, Seaside Mimosa, the envelope.
Addressed to me, written in orange
ink. I laid it on the table, next to the telescope
on the deck, as I sat outside and waited for my skin to singe.
You use to carefully curl every eyelash
before we went out and complain about the wire
in your bra. I would shave my failed attempt at a mustache
and make sure we had wood for a midnight bonfire.
But you made me feel like a neglected child, an underhand
remark, an actor with an inability to render
a performance. Leaving me as an incomplete ampersand.
I squint at the letter in the noonday sun, with too tender
eyes and feel as photogenic
as a four week old rotten pomegranate.
Lily Grey
I was trying to lose the bruises & sprained wrists
we got when we were monkeys,
but the rain tumbled down, and he had four limbs,
had more fists & clashed & clashed me down the stairs.
The rain is not a gentle rain, not a refreshing rain
that cleans the cars or waters the lilies when I am sick.
He blew me sideways with grey palms, this strike, this strike-
& locked me in the dog’s room saying it’s not a cage.
One window up there! One window up there! I think,
you aren’t that small anymore. Though I can almost
reach it, you repeatedly, repeatedly pummel,
fragile, fragile figure, jittery figure-
Sabrina Parr is a currently a senior at Lewis University. She is majoring in English on the professional and creative writing track with a minor in psychology. In her free time, Sabrina loves to read, and watch movies and TV. Sabrina is a Once Upon a Time, Teen Wolf, Stitchers, and Vampire Dairies enthusiast, but she also loves Reign. Sabrina loves almost anything supernatural and one day hopes to write a book about the supernatural. She almost always has a book in her hand and is frequently on the search for a new book to read. Sabrina hopes one day to work in publishing and to have her work published. She has an interest in Fiction and Poetry and is excited to work for Jet Fuel Review again this semester.
