Review of Keana Aguila Labra’s “Natalie”: An Ode of Love and Celebration of Life
Review of Keana Aguila Labra’s Natalie:
An Ode of Love and Celebration of Life
by Noreen Ocampo
In their microchapbook Natalie (Nightingale & Sparrow Press, 2020), writer Keana Aguila Labra explores the emotional complexity of an unforeseen loss. Described as “an ode of love dedicated to a young, bright woman taken from the world way before her time,” Natalie is an inexplicably touching collection of two poems — “Natalie” and “The Space Between You and I” — in which the speaker tenderly highlights the intersections of mourning, nostalgia, and hope.
Since its recent publication in May 2020, Natalie has sold out of its limited 100-copy print run, but Kindle and PDF versions are still available, with a portion of all profits to be donated to Trans Lifeline. With this in mind, I doubly recommend Natalie and encourage everyone to pick up their own copy.
The collection begins with a powerful wistfulness:
When I close my eyes,
the years collapse
fragile flower wilted in the pages
upon the cracked tiles of your
wide-toothed smile.
Described as “an ode of love dedicated to a young, bright woman taken from the world way before her time,” Natalie is an inexplicably touching collection.
In honest, emotion-laden language, Aguila Labra introduces us to the speaker’s understandably painful relationship with the past as they address the loss of their friend. Aguila Labra’s writing meticulously portrays the depth of the speaker’s layered emotional experience, each enjambment giving their words a solemn, growing weight. The difficulty of moving forward predominates the beginning sections of “Natalie,” and the speaker “time travel[s],” reminiscing:
I envelope you in the honey of
fragmented past, but
this anchoring, this guilt will linger:
what could I have done
to convince you
to press forward
with
me.
I love the heart-shattering nature of these particular lines as the speaker conveys the powerful “anchoring” of their guilt. Despite these intense emotions, however, both Aguila Labra’s voice and narrative maintain a sure resilience as the poem “Natalie” seamlessly transitions with a shift toward warmth and hopefulness:
But, I remember your kindness.
When the clouds part,
I think of a laugh
escaping your lips &
continue my drive home.
I find this gentle shift equally bittersweet and beautiful with its simple yet vivid depiction of the light that still remains, and although Aguila Labra continues to build on the lingering complexity of loss and grief, their writing promises to return to a hopeful celebration of Natalie’s life. The first poem finishes on an undeniably loving note as the speaker says, “Despite mourning / what-could-have-been, / I celebrate the time / you chose to / spend with me.”
Aguila Labra’s voice and narrative maintain a sure resilience as the poem “Natalie” seamlessly transitions with a shift toward warmth and hopefulness.
The microchapbook’s second poem “The Space Between You and I” carefully guides the collection home. At first glance, the poem’s title emphasizes distance and separation, and the speaker continues to refer to the permeation of guilt into their everyday life:
I have begun to tally things
that are becoming older
than you were,
I refuse to become older
than you were.
But Aguila Labra also demonstrates that the speaker’s love for Natalie rises above these difficult emotions. The speaker promises Natalie that their bond “transcends space & time” and finds some peace in this affirmation, concluding, “I’ll look for you in the leaves / & your laughter in the / wind. / You never left.” This emphasis on the immortality of love and its ability to warm us even after loved ones have passed is what makes the collection so moving — with their beautiful words, Aguila Labra ultimately brings us to a place of celebration and light.
At the end of the poem, Aguila Labra calls again on the image of the speaker driving home, but this time, alongside Natalie — rounding out the collection with a most heartwarming image of love that is sure to stay with readers for a very long time:
Perfect and preserved,
we share lunch before
I take you home.
NATALIE
By Keana Aguila Labra
12 pp. Nightingale & Sparrow Press. $1.99.
Order here.
Noreen Ocampo is a Filipina American writer from metro-Atlanta. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Taco Bell Quarterly, Depth Cues, and Marías at Sampaguitas, among others. She was also a music fellow in the 2019 COUNTERCLOCK Arts Collective and enjoys experimenting with various artistic mediums. An undergraduate at Emory University, she majors in Film and Media Studies as well as English with a concentration in multi-ethnic literature.