Poetry stems from the personal and through the poet, it is transformed into the universal. In Lady Saturn, Wanda Delgane does just that with describing to readers her universally shared journey toward belonging. True to the book’s epigraph, she confesses to us she is wandering, continually searching to make herself whole with the supposed antagonist none other than herself. Arguably, the best poetry makes the reader feel as though the poet were peering into their life with a microscope and describing these woes; and, she illustrates these struggles exactly with a kindness and empathy for others to read and understand.
Delgane is a champion of the unheard, and she lends her voice toward the truth of mental illness. Her representation of depression is incredibly important as it is still often romanticized or dismissed. With Flower Mouth, her mind’s relationship with lexapro is “constantly short-circuiting and casting the whole room in darkness.” She is honest with her struggles, how she is “furious at [her] brain for still remembering how to ride a bike, but not how to heal itself.” She uncovers its brutal effects with a poignant scene of her “trying to manually raise [her] enthusiasm like a lever in [her brain], but her face can only make a dim echo of a smile. [Her friends] don’t appear to notice.” She parallels this scenario in An 18-Year-Old Girl Has Trouble Getting Up in the Mornings as she eloquently explains her anguish, wishing she could “peel [herself] out of bed” and oscillating between ten and five years ago wondering “where [she is] and whose body [she is] inhabiting.” In addition to time, love and fear are also explored thematically in The Boy From My Dreams, Part 1 and Phobia. Both tie in to Delgane’s central theme of belonging, whether it’s attempting to coax this boy to stay by promising that she will never leave or her envy of things she believes are promised consistency due to its survivability and the belief she will not survive. Rage is not a core theme, but it unleashes itself in In My Defense as she addresses spiteful, misogynistic that have been hurled at her. They are the least of her problems, and they are not worth her time.
She utilizes different forms from the spoken word-esque back slashes in Grapefruit, “steps” in How to Fall Asleep, and the “list” in Should I Ever Find a Genie. There is not much experimentation in regards to form, but the collection is upholded by its strong narrative and imagery, which compounds atop each other with a crescendo, each its own unique note. One could write line after line in a journal as a keepsake of her words, but one would end up inscribing the entirety of Lady Saturn. One can only surmise that what she shares is truth because how can one convey such guttural, visceral heartbreak if it weren’t true? Her melancholy isn’t without its rightful fury, and Delgane proves with the progression of her poems her masterful grasp on communicating the layers and symbolism behind the scenes in this book.
Delgane shares her own narrative in Lady Saturn to reassure readers that they are not alone. Instead of using her traumas as an excuse to forgo hope, the collection transitions toward the positive. Delgane finds strength in herself and ultimately belonging within herself, as shown in The Boy From My Dreams, Part 3, who reveals himself as “everyone [she] ever needed [...] and this time I’m never going away again.” She shows readers they can become better versions of themselves no matter the circumstances. She encourages us to see the beauty in ourselves; she is our Lady Saturn showing us our skin and “fingers stitched together so perfectly [with] eyes like nebulas” despite the “huge and terrible storms” in each of us. She is promising to be there when perhaps no one else should, someone to be there even when no one was there for her.
She asks, “how do I make a home out of all these scars?” Just like this.
Keana Águila Labra (she/her) is the Editor-in-Chief of Marías at Sampaguitas. Her work may be found in the Aoi Kuma Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, Peculiars Magazine, Peeking Cat Poetry, Reclaim Anthology, and La Scrittrice. She penned articles as the co-editor of Chopsticks Alley Pinoy. She is a regular contributor for Royal Rose Magazine and Rose Quartz Magazine. She is a Poetry Reader for Homology Lit. Knowing the importance of representation, her work is evidence that Filipino Americans are present in the literary world. She is on Twitter as @KeanaLabra.