Naming the Sun, by Weston Barker

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features. Weston Barker’s debut chapbook Naming the Sun has bits of nothing mixed in with everything else. Grappling with questions of disillusionment and loss, the poems weave together a loose narrative of a speaker reaching for purpose and love, falling short, and reaching again. In a range of styles, the collection uses sparring images and ideas, with many of the poems offering an interplay between external reality and internal experience. Descriptions of natural scenes serve as a backdrop for reflections on the sublime, change, and personal conflict. What’s more, nature is often described in relation to futility, with a speaker seeking out its beauty and failing to find it. In his own words, Barker holds “there must be a tenderness somewhere. Inconstant, inconstant. There must be a tenderness somewhere.” Amidst a struggle for meaning, guided by a speaker who fails often, the poems portray hope as it is--always reaching, no matter the circumstance. Weston Barker is a Canadian-American author. A comedian at heart, his writing debuted on-stage in midnight sketch comedy revues in Ithaca, NY. Recently, his work has been produced by the UNC Department of Dramatic Art as part of their New Works Series. He has forthcoming poetry publications in Eunoia Review.