Heart of a Soul Comforter
by Kayla Muth
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9789395969765
Print Length: 52 pages
Reviewed by Samantha Hui
Hope & change can make the struggle worthwhile.
“So easily people forget / That it is written, ‘Jesus wept.’ / How long must Christians in duress / Be told their emotions, they must suppress?”
Kayla Muth’s Heart of a Soul Comforter is a short collection of poems that explores the speaker’s internal struggle with the anxieties of worldly ambition as well as the difficulties of living a devout life.
Readers will quickly connect with the unpretentious poetry that considers universal experiences while also telling a story about finding religion that is deeply personal to the speaker of the poems. The book will offer readers a sense of hope as well as offering tidbits of wisdom on how to properly treat one another for the sake of community and our own souls.
“Bonds are formed with volunteers / And even some homeowners, too / But then we’d disperse back to our homes / Except, I had no home to venture back to”
All the poems generally seem to possess the same speaker as she navigates the complexities of the human condition. The speaker experiences a lot of anxiety as she tries to pursue the American Dream, chasing after a worldly success that doesn’t seem to fulfill the speaker. With the anxiety growing and without an end in sight, the speaker decides to relinquish her pride and control and instead turns toward a higher power for guidance. The speaker is led to live a life as a vagabond and support those in need by helping with disaster relief projects. While the speaker feels more fulfilled in the work she is called to do, they now struggle with the loneliness of the vagabond life and the sacrifice that comes with obedience.
“Obedience isn’t giving up / It’s redirecting your passions / Following what’s important into the unknown.”
The poetry is religious in nature but accessible and enjoyable to a wider audience because of the universal experiences that are captured in the writing: loneliness, memory, true friendship, and hope. In the speaker’s solitude, she is able to truly understand what togetherness and friendship should look like because she craves it so dearly. She is a “soul comforter” for many people she crosses paths with, but who will be the soul comforter for her?
“So decide what you’re permitting / Soul comforter / A profound description that friend once gifted to me”
Muth’s poetry is most moving and impactful when it is filled with minutely specific detail and uses language sparingly. My favorite poem has got to be “Off to Brooklyn.” The lines of this poem are brief, most containing about three or four words per line. The mention of Jack Kerouac, the specificity of staying at the Comfort Inn, and knowing the speaker’s next destination of Brooklyn provide the poem with a fullness that made me connect more with the poem. The poems I connected with least seemed to me to sacrifice specificity and detail in the endeavor to maintain the rhyme scheme.
Heart of a Soul Comforter ultimately prompts readers to consider their own actions and strive to become a soul comforter for those around them. While doing good by each other can be a difficult task, this collection offers advice and a sense of hope. The poetry is accessible and the material relatable; readers from all walks of life are sure to learn more about themselves and about community from this collection.
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