Books by Lorenzo Thomas

Dancing on Main Street  / Sing the Sun Up / Chances Are Few

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Critical Analysis of 

“Instructions for Your New Osiris”

By Van G. Garrett

After reading Lorenzo Thomas’ poem “Instructions for Your New Osiris” excerpted from Chances Are Few I had a wonderful epiphany.  A revelation that spoke to me the way no Shakespearean sonnet has; the notion a breakup with a loved one can be skillfully written and well articulated, despite its bitter and turbulent past.

In the first stanza Thomas establishes the setting with immediacy. We are in the ex’s boudoir thinking about the absence of “Canopic old Egyptian jugs” that held the writer’s attention until his ex “Put them in her bag/ And toted them to her new lover’s house.” What is so wonderful about this stanza is it creates the scene, focuses on uncommon household items, and the manner which the lover takes or “totes” her wares to her new home.

Stanzas three and four portray the humanistic appeal of loneliness. The lines “My heart’s in one/ I’m dead / because no longer does my body hold a heart” illustrate the narrator’s despair and feelings of incompleteness. We realize metaphorically he is like the aforementioned jugs that once resided in the home—empty and jostled in transition. However, the poem’s sad tone shifts to a more profound realm of dejection in stanzas five through seven.

The previous lines convey an extinguished pride, trampled respect, disregard of feelings, and an obvious lapse in communication. The writer’s dejected spirit later manifests into confusion and disdain as the poem progresses. We see how the ex “lies like the difficulty of game show questions” in a show the writer doesn’t understand. He is confused and seeks to ascertain answers to the drama that besets him.

In the last stanza we are not presented with a wonderful resolution, rather a nostalgic and weary frustration that tries to comprehend how a relationship that once appeared to be sincere has turned sour: “When I was still alive, before I knew/ The full name of the door,/ I used to speak of her and say/ “My Lady”. ”

Thomas’ poem reflects a conversational and honest tone which is notably his hallmark. “Instructions for Your New Osiris” is a great example of skillful writing about a very personal experience. This denouncement of a once loving muse also conjures the ancient Egyptian myth of Osiris; a tale where the protagonist’s physical vessel is captured, transformed, erected, and shattered because of his brother Typhon’s jealousy. A clever conceit future suitors of the poem’s ‘Isis’ may want to carefully consider.

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Full Text of Poem

Source: Chances Are Few

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update 8 July 2008

Van G. Garrett, a writer, photographer, and teacher from Houston, TX can best be described as a “contemporary courier of creativity.”  Garrett, a 1999 graduate of Houston Baptist University, has a BA in English (with an emphasis in creative writing) and Mass Media (with an emphasis in print) which he has utilized as demonstrated by his various publications and honors.

He was awarded the Danny Lee Lawrence prize for poetry in 1999, a 2002 Callaloo Creative Writing Fellowship for poetry, and his poems have appeared in Rolling Out, Life Imitating Art, Swirl, Drumvoices Review, Curbside Review, Shanks’ Mare, Urban Beat, E! Scene and elsewhere.

His photography has appeared in Source, has been contracted by Capitol Records, and has been on display at the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston.

v.g.garrett@usa.net