#sealeychallenge

I'll admit I'm really wading through the brain fog today, so maybe that's why I found most of these poems almost impenetrable--I couldn't even understand what a lot of the poems were about--although finally reaching the Notes at the back did illuminate some things. So that mostly left me paying attention to the language--the words themselves when I knew them and the sound and rhythm when I didn't. She has an incredible hold on the English language--it seems to work for her effortlessly, smoothly, unpredictably. The mundane aspects of life in her poems are vivid--psychedelic at times--and razor sharp. I hope I reread this later when I can glean more meaning from it but even without, I really enjoyed it and have new ideas for how to use language after reading hers.

My favorites, I think, are "Dead Owl" and "Vox Humana". I couldn't find either of them online so I've put pictures from my book below the cut. In the future I will link to websites with text of the poem if I can find it.

Content warning: Both poems are almost enmeshed with animal death.

I've also put a picture of that page of the Notes at the very end.

DEAD OWL

(You might have to click them to see the entirety of each image)

VOX HUMANA

NOTES

I first read Sophie Klahr in her poem, Tender, which I still cannot read without weeping. It's not in this collection, but especially with all the discussions of fire season today, it's worth sharing:

This book includes a long sequence poem, as well as series of poems tied together by their investigation of passage, place, and repetition.

Another reread from my collection.

Back in high school, I read poetry curated on various LiveJournal blogs and communities. Poems were posted without context, without any curriculum. I read voraciously, looked up nothing, just copied and pasted what I loved into a Word document.

Marie Howe was one of the poets who kept showing up. And when I bought this collection, the totality of it, the unflinching approach to suffering, to loss, to the failings of family and body, was a revelation. This is truly a collection that is stronger than the sum of it's parts.

This was a reread for me - I read this about a month ago, and it lit my brain on fire. This is a Yale Younger Poets book, which my all time favorite collection of poetry is (siken's "Crush"). Like Crush, this collection caught me under the ribs and pulled. Besotted with this one.

The Elegies for Fire and Oxycodone ate some of the best concrete poetry I've seen in contemporary work

Lynn is so good at using juxtaposition to build meaning.