The 55 poems in Human
Voices Wake Us fall primarily into 3 categories: biographical poems, poems
about the natural world, and poems about the worldly travels and travails of a man learning and practicing medicine. As I began to read this book,
I started checking off all the poems that I thought might merit comment, but
stopped early on since almost all called to me--each in their own voice. Thankfully—and
skillfully--the poems were often placed in ways that, although drawing from
the different aspects of the author’s life, they complemented each other. For
example, “The Tyranny of Aging,” a poem about caring for a half paralyzed 95
year old whose last living child has died, is followed by “Redbud,” where the
speaker of the poem walks “the ravines, the treed/windbreaks, the creek
bottom/all the wooded places//searching for redbuds” (p.49). Another example is
the poem “Shock and Awe in Comfort, Texas,” where a solitary walker confronts
dive-bombing dragonflies and birds of prey doing what they need to do to stay
alive followed by “What I Remember in Embryology,” a poem about being created
and born: “Tethered/we are all waiting/fetuses suckling/our way//to heart and
hair/teeth and bone/reaching grasping/limb buds into fingers” (p.25). Winakur came to poetry after realizing that
"coming and going in the rooms on daily rounds was not enough to sustain a
life"(xiv). What the reader experiences in this book is Winakur’s inspired attempt
of seeking—and then delivering through poetry-- more.
