Flashes of Attraction but No Reaction

Passion and sexuality are often (if not THE) most powerful muses for poetry, unfortunately the poetic verses of Adrian Ernesto Cepeda do not do justice to the more steamy, erotic side of humanity. His collection, Flashes & Verses... Becoming Attractions, published by Unsolicited Press in 2018, is an exercise in melodrama. Used to excess, the words "cream" and "licked" rapidly begin to fill the reader with a profound distaste and those soured words will (unhappily) linger with said reader even when the book is at a close. The poetry in which Cepeda features the delicacies of the human flesh is not sensual or even gratuitous for that matter, but mawkish.

His readers will feel as if they scanning their eyes over the writings of a wanton teenager groping at what he thinks sex is, instead of the first poetry collection written by an adult man celebrating music and his lovers. The sex, which is even applied to inanimate objects such as a wine bottle, is not 'sexy.' Perhaps it is because of the overwhelming amount of melodrama found within the book that causes Cepeda's collection to lose favor so quickly with its readers. The result of such a piling on of over the top descriptions is worse than simple disinterest. Ultimately the poetry becomes disagreeable to the palate.

But not all of Cepeda's pieces fall victim to the maddeningly banal style discussed above. The poems which possess the most artistic integrity due to their sincerity, or at the very least, the poet's strong ability to convince the readers of his sincerity, are "We Couldn't Ever Afford To Go Inside," "Fear of Driving," "Nature's Firework," and "Raining Umbrellas." These poems are balanced. They are chock full of emotional fervor while still containing the restraint of a well planned design.

"We Couldn't Even Afford To Go Inside" is multidimensional. It is not only a poem but an art film. Flickering scenes of lovers filled with passion, who "...painted on bed sheets / naked cavases," despite financial hardships, appear as the speaker comments, "All I ever heard was her stomach growling for leftover pasta..." The screen of the mind fades to black before the tragic couple is seen again, this time surrounded by books. With his words the speaker becomes every voracious reader in the world when he says, "...our books would stay there...our invisible children calling our names through our clouds of smoke. We just could never return them." The story Cepeda tells is gripping, even enchanting.

In "Fear of Driving," the readers are presented with compelling verse once again. The fear that clicks in tandem with the car's turn signal as the speaker turns "...into the freeway / that at times is not meant for me..." and the rage "...sparked / by an officer showing off his own piece / and instructing me to lie on the hellacious highway concrete, face down like a perro / in heat..." are effective. They center themselves in the hearts of the readers, swimming throughout the bloodstream with every heart beat.

The tempered sensuality, well established construction and carefully crafted drama intrinsic to theses pieces is a refreshing downpour. Unfortunately, there are large periods of drought in Cepeda's first collection of poems, which leave readers thirsting for any kind of salvation. Even if that salvation comes in the form of some kind of distraction, forcing them to close the book.

Readers curious to investigate Flashes & Verses... Becoming Attractions for themselves in order to form their own opinions of its merits can purchase a copy from Amazon. Readers can also learn more about Cepeda at his website.