As Day Alights by Emma Mnaya-Buzy

Sagely addressing spiritual, societal, personal, and hopeful themes, Emma Mnaya-Buzy delivers a multifaceted and empowering work in her sophomore collection of poetry, As Day Alights.

Peppered with profoundly unique and powerful poems, such as the ominous and surreal “Quivering Light,” and the mystical “Kumbikumbi,” this collection defies classification and comparison. Mnaya-Buzy is boldly unafraid of slant rhymes, and cleverly blends rhyme patterns to create an unpredictable yet elegant rhythm in many of these pieces.

“Let Verse Pretend” is a particularly striking piece, with each stanza deserving deeper inspection, though the final hits hardest. There is no telling where her free verse will slip into a metered flow, and the poet’s playful drafting of these visceral and personal poems reveals her clear intimacy with her underlying messages.

There are some small proofreading items to fix, such as mismatched in-text titles with the contents page (including the titular poem), but these are minimal and easily remedied. The illustrations and mixed-media pieces that give a pause between poems are carefully placed, their intention and connection varying from obvious to intriguingly suggestive.

A beautiful homage to the depths of the self, cultural history, memory, gender, loss, and love, As Day Alights is a stirring collection to be revisited and reconsidered again and again.

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