Lawrence Barrett, review  of  China Girl by John Sansone Charleston, SC;  Createspace, 2010. Available at WWW.Amazon.com.

John Sansone, El Paso poet, writer and dramatist, has crafted a highly volatile tome of poetry, China Girl. The work is divided into a complex array of sections and takes the reader on a variegated ride through the peaks and valleys of his imagined and very real love for a woman only identified as “China Girl.” Though the title hints at objectification, perhaps that is the logical point of his entire obsession. In the first section Sansone identifies one of the many ironies of his obsession, the obsession of every new love:

 

 

She makes bread flawlessly,

even when she burns it, it is perfect.

And this realization is coupled with the realization of every middle-aged man who has ever loved a younger woman:

“…only now I don't

have to go to the desert but the desert has

come to me, toward the end of my life cycle,

with bodily sighs and automotive parts

that have outlived their warranty…”

Sansone crescendos the first section with “Ocean of Love.” The poem’s stark verbalization marks Sansone’s relaxed philosophical cit-chatty style with an edge of blood and guts, spicing up, of course, his musings on love.  The whole effect is quite wonderful, like watching the first round of a boxing match that ends with a near knock-out. Love is not a metaphor for Sansone, though he employs them, it is an obsession that never quits. And like a good boxer, Sansone stands up for the next round.

The book is by no means a hodge-podge collection of obsession poetry but more a story about an obsession that ends with a diabolical twist, when Sansone is called by China Girl for help. Sansone realizes as his obsession wanes that he is not looking for sexual love so much anymore as he discovers the love for a daughter he never had. Ouch!  Politically incorrect? The sadness is profound in his poem “winter solstice:”

I am borne of a million

complaints, a winter foliage

pretending to be a sprig.