Poetry Chapbook Reviews – Moonchild Dreams by Nadia Gerrassimenko
Chloe Moloney reviews the debut poetry chapbook of Moonchild Magazine founder Nadia Gerrassimenko. “Love, sentiment and feelings are the most valuable currency we have.”
Your ocean is not mine
Although you say you’ll share
The food tastes different
The water’s cold
Your friends don’t speak my language
So how can I relate?
-Moonchild Dreams by Nadia Gerassimenko
The first poem in Nadia Gerassimenko’s Moonchild Dreams, ‘We will make it through’, is a poem I wasn’t aware I so desperately needed until I reached the last line. This particular chapbook holds the ability to both soothe and expose its reader. Whatever the world throws our way, Gerassimenko assures that we will indeed ‘make it through’, and I’m sure that Moonchild Dreams will forge the path to recovery and peace of mind.
Gerassimenko’s focus on human nature and the prominence of emotional vitality hallmarks the chapbook as particularly innovative. Running through Moonchild Dreams are veins flowing with the universal truth that love, sentiment and feelings are the most valuable currency we have.
The chapbook is imbued with equal degrees of growth and loss, touching on the most human of experiences in the most lunar of ways. It is clear that Moonchild Magazine founder Gerassimenko has a wise soul, full to the brim with perception and shrewdness.
The poem ‘Renaissance’ touches on preconceived ideas of female purity and virginity. In a world which so often scrutinises women for exploring their sexuality, this poem traces the loving and reassuring nature of mythology and an external world, encouraging women to remove themselves from internalised guilt.
“I’ve lost myself, my innocence,”
She whispered weakly and closed her eyes
To pray
-Moonchild Dreams by Nadia Gerassimenko
Gerassimenko comments on the crucial part that Moonchild Dreams has played in the crafting of her poetic identity. She writes:
“The poems in Moonchild Dreams span a whole decade from my youth to my adulthood. When I was naive and dreaming all the time to when I was disillusioned by people and life to when I toughened my identity and strength but also gave myself the permission to continue following my dreams and passions. These poems are about growth and strength, about loss and pain, about true love and self-love, about wisdom and seeing things outside the box.”
I am certainly appreciative of the fact that Gerassimenko allowed us this stellar insight into such a personal chapter of her life. Each of us experiences disillusionment and disdain at the hands of others. Poetry such as Gerassimenko’s strengthens us in ways we never could have imagined.
You can buy Nadia Gerassimenko’s chapbook Moonchild Dreams here, or via her website.
Nadia Gerrassimenko is the founding editor of Moonchild Magazine. Do, do, do check it out. Get lost in its world. You’ll love it.
