Review :: “The Hill” by Lena Moses-Schmitt

Guest Post by Kekoa Makuahi

In “The Hill,” poet Lena Moses-Schmitt offers readers a short, beautiful experience into pure unadulterated emotion of what it feels like to love something or someone so much, but to then lose it, and in the process of dealing with that loss, find yourself once again. The poem begins:

I remember I used to receive love
letters from him and found them so pleasurable
I could only read in quick gulps,
trying not to get brain freeze, skipping whole phrases
so that they slid straight down
the back of my throat.

“The Hill ” spoke out loud in a way to say to the reader that it is okay to feel like you are on top of the world, or in this case top of the hill, as Moses-Schmitt continues,

I reached the top
and cried with no warning. I used to be very new
to myself and now I was accustomed to everything.
How embarrassing.

But, as the work concludes, sometimes you have to come back down and make sure to not lose yourself in that process.

“The Hill” by Lena Moses-Schmitt. 32 Poems, No. 39, Summer 2022.

Reviewer Bio: Kekoa is a student of the literary arts looking to further his knowledge and understanding of the abundance of forms.