Jessica Thomas-Drake reviews Isabel Sobral Campos' Autobiographical Ecology (2019)

Jessica Drake-Thomas was good enough to provide the first review of Isabel Sobral Campos' Autobiographical Ecology (2019). Thanks so much! You can see the original review here. As Drake-Thomas writes:

“Notebook/is language peel, summary of misunderstanding in the wastebasket where/crumpled pages sleep,” the speaker says in Isabel Sobral Campos’s chapbook of poems, Autobiographical Ecology.

The book has the feel of reading a diary. It’s equal parts confessional and listing of observations, which evoke the chaos of life in the modern world.

“I have mused over my poverty as a writer. I have mused while taking my/ clothes off & slipping into a bathtub. I have thought of Sylva Plath in her/nightgown with a flashlight pointing at a word on a wall,// ‘Beware.'” References to Plath, Ashbery and Brainard are sprinkled throughout, situating the poet within the realms of confessional poetry, Postmodernism, and collage, which is exhibited throughout Autobiographical Ecology.

Each poem feels like a new entry, building upon the narrative of the confessional poet, writing in the notebook.

“Lemons, lemon peel, sweet potatoes (as if touching pearls) and avoiding mirrors especially in the/postpartum belly//”Oh there once was//:/a woman ‘//an animal ‘//a person ‘//inside an Ashbery poem'”

The entries reveal struggles with postpartum depression, how cataloging lists and observations and poetry brings a sense of order to the speaker. It’s how she begins to make sense of what’s happening to her and around her.

Sobral Campos’s poetry is teeming with raw emotion and particularly stunning images that are redolent with sensory details. I highly recommend Autobiographical Ecology, which is available through above/ground press.

Jessica Thomas-Drake reviews Mary Kasimor's disrobing iris (2019)

Jessica Drake-Thomas was good enough to provide a third review of Mary Kasimor's disrobing iris (2019), after John C. Goodman reviewed it over at Otoliths, and Amanda Earl reviewed such over at her blog.Thanks so much! You can see the original review here. As Drake-Thomas writes:

“you continued dancing for the pleasure of night’s/invisible black silk/with only your hips you showed the mountains/how to dance/in their moon of rock and dust/here in the night/you grow old like a moonstone,” the speaker says in Mary Kasimor’s book of poems, disrobing iris.

The poems in this book have a cool feminist goth-witch vibe that I really appreciated. There were several pieces that I really enjoyed, particularly “dropped stitches.”

In the piece, the speaker says “she knew all the stitches/to close her mouth/stitches to end her life.” This hints at secret feminine knowledge–the woman in the poem knows how to keep quiet. She knows how to play by the rules of a patriarchal society, to do what is expected of her. This, coupled with the fact that sewing was historically considered to be “women’s work” fits together seamlessly (pun intended).

“the stitches blurred/the lines inside herself/she finally spoke,” the speaker says. The action here is important. After this, the poem goes from a very stiff construction, where both the woman and the speaker are holding back. What comes after is a deluge of words.

“she spoke before herself/speaking for her garden/of dying matter/written in her journal/all that dies matters,” the speaker says. The idea that the woman in the poem has this garden that seems to be decaying is an interesting image. I’m trying to picture it, and I’m coming up with a garden of lichen and mold. However, it could also be flowers–they are in a perpetual state of growing then dying. It’s a multi-layered image that could be defined in a few different ways.

“shared memories the orchestra/of stitched culture/the connection of/boundaries the components/of noise/of repression,” the speaker says. This is the heart of this piece–despite all of society’s advances, there is still a patriarchal bent to our society. Women are still repressed. We are encouraged to be quiet and to obey.

Which is why the final line is absolute perfection: “a new language of dropped/ stitches the dress/unraveling the last/body.”

Here, the woman sets herself free through changing the “stitched culture.” She drops stitches, making a dress that is warped, imperfect. She goes against code. This is a lovely piece, with a powerful message. I love it. The line breaks in this piece are absolute perfection, particularly “of dropped/stitches.” Additionally, the lack of capitalization and punctuation is working perfectly.

I really enjoyed this book. The subtle artistry is stunning here. Kasimor’s work is absolute genius. I highly recommend disrobing iris, which is available through above/ground press.

Jessica Thomas-Drake reviews Amanda Earl's Aftermath or Scenes of a Woman Convalescing (2019)

Jessica Drake-Thomas was good enough to provide the first review of Amanda Earl's Aftermath or Scenes of a Woman Convalescing (2019). Thanks so much! You can see the original review here. AsDrake-Thomas writes:

“The first blooms of spring make me cry. I thought I/would never experience them again,” the speaker says in Amanda Earl’s chapbook of poems, AFTERMATH, or Scenes of a Woman Convalescing.

The poems are excerpted from a longer, multi-part poem that Earl wrote following a bout with pneumonia, full body sepsis and a toxic mega colon (from Notes). I had never really thought about how much poetry is in the art of healing. Not until I read this book. When we first meet the speaker, she is healing, following surgery. As the work progresses, the reader sees how the speaker grows and heals.

“I am giddy with love for/the trees, the rain and the wind,” the speaker says. “I say inappropriate/thing because I am happy. There is no wall for/me anymore. I am in love with you. You are alive./ I am alive. The ghosts surround us.” There’s such joie de vivre, particularly after where the speaker began the book.

“I left her on the bed, my/counterpart,” the speaker says. “She is in ICU and dying. I floated out of/her and yes, there is a doubling. I feel her silence. I/fill oblivion white sheets with colour.”

There’s such a sense of blooming, and rebirth in these pieces, but there’s also a sense of how far the speaker has come. This is shown through the small things, like the first taste of a tomato, or or the first time spring comes again. There is an appreciation of life, and a recognition of struggle. Her body has betrayed her, and modern medicine has brought her back. There’s so much poetry in the art of healing, and how a person returns to feeling well and alive again.

I absolutely loved this chapbook. I haven’t read anything like it before. Earl weaves spell-like pieces that draw the reader in. Her verse is both lovely and aching. Rumi once said that “the wound is where the Light enters you.” He meant that it’s our pain and how we choose to overcome it that helps us to grow, and that is evident here in Earl’s work.

It’s another example of excellent, absolutely top-notch work that has been published by Canadian above/ground press.

Jessica Drake-Thomas reviews Allyson Paty’s Five O’Clock on the Shore (2019)

Jessica Drake-Thomas was good enough to provide the first review of Allyson Paty’s Five O’Clock on the Shore (2019); thanks so much! You can see the original review here.

This week, I read Allyson Paty’s chapbook, Five O’Clock on the Shore, a collection of poems which explore temporal and causality. I found this book to be really intriguing. It has the feel of a confessional.

In her long poem, entitled “Millennial,” the speaker says, “Anything I did or had could be given a name and a value.” She then goes on to show how actions and exchanges shaped her life. How exchanges were made, so that she had the things that she did or does.

There are several such exchanges, for example:

“People with tumors lay down on a table for my father. My father cut the tumors out./ The people with tumors paid a hospital, the hospital paid my dad, and he paid for me.”

The series of statements show cause and effect throughout her life. How she came to be who she is and where she is. One would think that these would take the poetry and — out of the speaker’s life, however, these pieces become deeply meaningful and artfully spoken.

“Everything I did or had could be given a name and a value. It was a violent translation./Nothing it could not touch.”

“Millennial” evokes a certain sense of longing. For a simpler life with less of the “violent translation.” It’s a longing for life to mean something more than just these exchanges. There’s something deeply human and aching about the piece. Simply put, it’s stunning.

I highly recommend Five O’Clock on the Shore. Paty’s work is phenomenal. You can find Five O’Clock on the Shore through above/ground press.