Reading Poetry x 3 — review by Stella

My poetry reading is eclectic and erratic. I have good intentions. I have poems and poets I have read that resonate years on. A fan of Michael Ondaatje and of Hone Tuwhare in my 20s, I read their collections and their books would travel with me. More recent highlights are Anne Carson’s Wrong Norma and Richard von Sturmer’s Postcard Stories, which both match wit and intellect to great effect. Poetry comes in many shapes and sizes. I have always been attracted to small strange books of words and images usually discovered in second-hand bookshops. Pamphlets and slim collections where words edge at each other; mercurial. Making sense, or not, and altering our senses. The sparsity on the page inviting interjections; encouraging thought. The poetry forms various. Intellect and emotion juggling on the page, or a story in a verse poem contained by the rules, a haiku exacting in tempo — its precision saying or showing up something so much more than its parts. Concrete poems inventively arranged on the page — the space around the words built with intention. On my reading pile right now, I was surprised to find 3 poetry volumes, all different in style. Two from small presses. One chosen for its cover, one a gift, and the third an appealing title.
I could not resist the typography and cover design of The Territory is Not the Map, a chapbook published by Ugly Duckling Presse in NY. It’s bilingual — I can’t read the Spanish, but maybe one day I will. The possibility makes a future. Marilia Garcia’s poems read like a beautiful hum, the pace of the poems lifts off the page, the repetition of lines song-like. You are transported at a glance, on a journey in an unknown geography.
The gift, Little Dead Rabbit is a collaboration between the poet Astrid Alben and the graphic designer Zigmunds Lapsa. A corpse at the side of the road and the question of borders informs this unusual, beautiful publication. With its die-cut abstract illustrations and words floating within space, this is a concrete poem which goes beyond the playfulness of its form, cutting to something which is both challenging and embracing; looking at death and therefore life.
I’m currently reading The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser, written in response to 9/11, to what it feels like to be a Muslim woman in the USA, and how family, tradition, language shape us and both hold and suffocate. Belonging and displacement continue to be issues that we fail to resolve. Exploring mistranslation, the poems are intriguing and thought-provoking.
My poetry books tend to stay on the reading pile for months, sometimes years. I dip in, dip out. They rise to the surface and are submerged by novels, review copies, work reading, articles, the news feed. But they are there marking time, waiting for my attention and they never fail to intrigue. Why do poetry books not get the short shrift like some novels, get abandoned like some non-fiction? There is something admirable about their brevity. Every word counts, and as a reader I respect the work on the page. Somehow they are vital. Have a look at our poetry selection and choose a collection that resonates with you, or be random and make a discovery! Happy Poetry Day!