the samurai (PDF)
the samurai (PDF)
They say to let go of your past, but I think that this is a mistake. Sometimes the past tethers you on the right path for your future.
Fall into the samurai, a chapbook by Linda M. Crate, now available for purchase as a PDF or a paperback (as well as wholesale and through most distribution channels)! This collection of poems speaks of rebirth, reincarnation, and lessons from the past as a means to a better future. For the author, this is through a past life discovered in a very vivid dream that had both awed and confused her.
Within this dream, the author was visited by a strong, courageous woman—a samurai—who showed her how to listen to her past, learn from her mistakes, and inherit the future she deserves. The Onna-bugeisha (female martial artist) were female samurai. They were a type of female warrior who mostly belonged to the Japanese nobility. This collection was titled “the samurai” because this is what the woman in the dream wished to be known as. She was a fighter and a survivor, as is the author.
Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian born in Pittsburgh but raised in Conneautville. Her work has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, both online and in print. She is the author of six poetry chapbooks, the latest of which is More Than Bone Music (March 2019). She also is the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (June 2018) and two micropoetry collections. Recently, she has published two full-length poetry collections, Vampire Daughter (February 2020) and The Sweetest Blood (February 2020). Linda is also a two-time Pushcart nominee.
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To learn more about Linda and the samurai, check out our recent interview with her.
Illustrations by Ann Marie Sekeres. Follow AnnMarieProjects on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Her artwork is also available to purchase; for more information, see annmarieprojects.com.
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Editorial Reviews:
“These twenty-one poems, moving from “lost in translation” to “there is no surrender” complete a textual identification and self-transformation that is nearly seamless, devoid of capitals so as not to interrupt the stream of consciousness effect, paused by only a strong image of sword-wielding samurai in the middle of the text, following “10. every monster will fall” (23), and the numbered titles of each page’s poem. In Linda M. Crate’s penultimate poem, “20. i won't stop fighting,” the author clearly expresses the inspiration and healing essence of the samurai sword, and a path forward, in her broad statement of the movement of inner healing: “the samurai in me still lives through me and so I make my/ dreams, my words, my light a sword against/ the darkness of this world” (45).”
--CYNTHIA T. HAHN, Highland Park Poetry
“Linda M. Crate’s poetry chapbook the samurai is an introspective journey from the speaker’s low point of heartbreak and insecurity to a place of confidence through the belief that she is the reincarnation of a samurai.”
This collection is strongest when the speaker reflects on the hazy connections between herself and the samurai: a fear of heights stemming from the samurai’s fatal fall off a roof during a swordfight, a devotion to the color red stemming from the samurai’s red kimono she wore in death—details culminating in lines like “the threads we weave follow us from lifetime to lifetime” from the poem “the old souls speak.””
--ROBIN HENDRICKS, The Poetry Question
“These poems revolve around finding one's inner strength by learning from the past to eventually move into a brighter future. I wouldn't have considered a samurai to ever be female but then, why not? One can't help but believe that Ms. Crate was indeed a samurai in another life. Loved the cover design of the chapbook and the color red that is prevalent within this collection from the red kimono to the wings of a phoenix.”
--SUE HISS, Amazon reviewer
“I’m a very picky poetry lover and this book is wonderful! Well written, intriguing, connected theme. I love the idea of exploring a past life to understand yourself. Very impressed with this author and surprised she’s not yet famous in literary circles yet.”
--Amazon reviewer