For an absolute novice when it comes to poetry, I was delighted to find that Phlip Arima’s Pin Pricks was utterly relatable. His poems, while short and concise (sometimes just a single statement) are so perfectly apt that I couldn’t help but relive Pin Prick 15 while on the subway this morning. Poetry, as an art form often suggests a lofty inaccessibility, and Pin Pricks blows that misconception away.
Each and every Pin Prick (as Arima dubs each poem) is a well thought out commentary on the everyday things that make up a life, including the experiences we share and the idiosyncrasies that make us unique.
Arima’s every word is loaded with a keen understanding of humanity. His frustration with the everyday materialism and monotony of our lives is an overarching theme, but amidst this quiet rebellion, he maintains an overwhelming tone of hopefulness, to which the reader can’t help but relate.
Arima takes the obvious, grotesque, and mundane, and illustrates them in such an unassuming way that you feel like you’re experiencing them for the first time, when in actuality, they are a part of our every day.
His ability to magnify little moments, some version of which we have all experienced means that Pin Pricks is more than just a collection of poems: it is the stranger’s eyes, through which we see ourselves and our shared world.
Madison
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