Book Review: The Peach Pit Mask by Sammi Yamashiro
Written by Benidamika
Poetry is a very personal thing. It feels like belonging, a favourite jumper we go back to every fall, no matter the number of holes that are in it. It is a sink or a toilet bowl we empty our worst selves into. While reading Sammi Yamashiro’s book “The Peach Pit Mask”, I felt a bit like an intruder, for stumbling upon some of the rawest and most honest poetry I have ever read. I felt like I needed to stop turning the pages, but I couldn’t.
This 200-page poetry book felt like it was plucked straight out of Sammi Yamashiro’s beating heart. It is divided into four sections (see what I did there) starting from 2017 when Yamashiro was just a teenager of 15-16 years and closes in 2020, when she is between 18-19 years old.
Each section has its own title which sums up the major theme of the poems.
Yamashiro’s voice in 2017 was that of a reclamation, “a rebellion ”. Her words are a testimony of how a young girl turns into a woman. When it felt like the world was against her, she stood up and spoke loud for everyone to listen. The poems in this section are much shorter in comparison to the later years of her collection.
Yamashiro’s sense of rootlessness was replaced when she found an almost motherly tie in Tori Amos. The poems in the second section like “In This Dopey Room” and “In A Dream That Couldn’t Be” were written with Amos' as an inspiration. The poems in this part of the book are lined with loneliness and a sense of starvation that could only be fulfilled by her yearning for God.
The third section, which is the shortest, is loud with unrequited love and loss. Confusion, anger and suicidal thoughts bulldozed Yamashiro in 2019 but her grip on God tightened. Some of her longest and most personal poems can be found here.
In 2020, Yamashiro starts a search for herself in another continent. She seeks a home where she will feel the warmth of open arms but finds dissatisfaction following her wherever she goes.
“The Peach Pit Mask” as a collection is a brew of emotions ranging from impermanence to anger to self-loathing and a contentment in God. Yamashiro collected her vulnerabilities and forged them into poems for the whole world to read, baring herself like an open wound. This act of bravery by opening herself up - a private journal, will always be admired. Yamashiro’s work is the kind that inspires one to choose life when they are on the edge of giving up. Her words make a person feel heard and give them the strength to speak out their truth too. In her words, “Nobody’s voice is too meek to be heard”.
Her growth over the years as a poet is quite significant and I, and her readers, are lucky to be witnesses of that process through this collection. Sammi Yamashiro’s debut poetry collection feels like it is just the beginning.
BENIDAMIKA considers herself to be one of the Romantics. She was longlisted for the Wingword Poetry Competition 2018 and has been published in multiple Train River Poetry anthologies. She has a Master's in English Literature and is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Psychology and Counselling.
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