Inhaling the Silence (Poems) by Anna Yin, Review by Luiza Sadowski

I came across Anna Yin’s name many times while working as a Communications Coordinator for the Mississauga Arts Council and had the pleasure of meeting her at the 2013 MARTY Awards, where she took home an honourable mention in Established Literary Arts. Anna is also a recipient of the 2010 MARTY Award in Emerging Literary Arts. It wasn’t until a recent workshop I organized on Digital Marketing with Simon Cooper, that I got my hands on one of her latest collections of poems, Inhaling the Silence.

Soon after, my health took a bit of a spiral and I did not have the chance to really delve into these poems I so yearned to read but it was also during this time that I really got to unplug myself from every day routines and just focus on my inner peace and truly inhale my own “inner silence.”

A professional dancer myself, I was magnetically drawn to Come and Dance on page 5:

Come and dance with me under the lemon trees,
On a beach by the Caribbean Sea.
Come and savor the damp exotic breeze
And taste sweet lilies like a honeybee.

The moonlight pours from its shimmering urn.
The rising wave splashes us with delight.
In and out, our steps may stray then return.
Refusing to take love as fleeting light.

When the soft hands slip through our feet like fish,
And hum a melody from a shell’s dream,
Oh, love, you shall listen to my heart’s wish
The way the waterfall joins the stream.

Tides set out and set off- I offer this,
For this love to tie us as one in bliss.

The last sentence is a direct correlation painting a picture to the setting I am experiencing while writing this review. Beautiful, peaceful day by the water with trees lightly swayed by the soft wind. Simultaneously in my heart, I am feeling a strong love bond that has been bliss and has been even more reconfirmed leading up to this moment of my life.

In the Mind of Tao on page 9 also drew me in closer:

You are here,
there, both
ever and never.

I am the butterfly,
you are the dreamer.
You breed wings,
so I can fly.

But I prefer to be a fish.
My life in you
a drop
of water in a river

not air or wind
between somewhere
and nowhere.

The butterfly represents transformation, which one can experience going simply from season to season, relationship to relationship or simply at a crossroads in their life, one which I believe I have myself underwent this year.

Anna Yin’s poetry is eloquent and touches on all aspects of life, happiness and love, giving you a sense of rebirth and enlightenment. Our lives are a sum of all of our moments and experiences. Yin’s collections of poems are a wonderful experience of one’s own emotions. They take you away from everyday mediocrity and open your mind and heart to delve into the deep pockets of your emotions, sparking up the fire of some of your most passionate memories.

I recommend Anna Yin’s Inhaling the Silence to anyone that wants to evoke pleasant memories and reflect on a variety of aspects of their life. Her poetry is gentle yet aggressive enough to get the point across.

-Luiza Sadowski, Communications Coordinator, Mississauga Arts Council