Reviewing Zirconia

I found Cole Swensen's review of Zirconia much more productive and relative to the meaning of Minnis' poetry. Swensen's commentary went much deeper into functionality of Minnis' poems while Arielle Greenberg just seemed to glaze the surface of Zirconia. Greenberg's description of the extended ellipses was troubling to me. I never felt the "wave of pinpricked text" or the effect of "part stutter part studded" as Greenberg describes and quite frankly I do not understand what she is trying to describe. Swensen's commentary on the "hyper" ellipses is much more understandable and relative to the poetry. Swensen states, "These ellipses also constitute an ambient hum, as murmuring voices in the background that both cause and complete those long blanks. They create a suspension, which in turn becomes suspense, paralleling the gentle menace that lurks throughout this book." This description of the ellipses makes much more sense in the context of Zirconia.

I also enjoyed Swensen's thoughts on the conflicting imagery presented in the collection. I felt the violence in several poems being swayed and pulled towards beauty with the use of language and unconventional structure in the ellipses. Swensen comments on the idea of Minnis' approach toward conventionality saying, "perhaps because she demands a true response of herself, not a conventionally acceptable one." This is one of the things I enjoyed most about Minnis, her sincerity and consequential unconventionality.

Swensen's idea about the role of direction in Zirconia was especially interesting. She comments on the recurring color red throughout the collection and how this stands for intensity. However, the direction of the intensity and the objects in which the intensity is manifested is often directionless. This is largely because of the use of the ellipses but also the way that the objects are presented. Swensen comments on how the objects are not tied down to metaphors or similes but rather left open to the discretion of the reader. This direction, or lack thereof, is a strong aesthetic component of Minnis' poetry. Instead of linking objects to images, the objects are left independent to resonate in the context of the reader.

Chelsey Minnis, Zirconia

Chelsey Minnis' collection of poems in Zirconia is colorful and emotional. Minnis jumps from one idea to the next without fluid transitions. However, the use of periods instead of empty space connect one idea to the next while simultaneously creating powerful separations to emphasize certain points. The language in Zirconia is often harsh, violent and sometimes grotesque. Disturbing images mingle with beautiful ones throughout the collection. This imagery can be found in the poem, Maroon, which starts,

.............my bloodsticky........................................wet......................................
.......................................................................................................................
..............................................................baby..................................................
........is..............an auburn...and.............bloody.......beauty..............................
............who.....................................................................................................
............shined........inside........................a slippery milky sac..........................


This illustration of the inner workings of natality is somewhat disturbing and grotesque, but at the same time, the language is beautiful and enticing to the reader. This use of language and imagery creates a strange balance in Zirconia and the scales are usually not even.

The structure of the poems in Zirconia is often challenging to follow but it is also enjoyable. The use of periods allows Minnis to emphasize certain words and images in a new and different way than other authors. I had to pause on several words and consider the meaning of the spaces in the collective whole of the poem. This new and different use of structure was enticing to me as a reader and was a powerful use of the space on the page.

However, in contrast to my last point, I especially enjoyed the poems, The Skull Ring, and The Aquamarine, which use simple paragraph form and no obvious pattern. These two poems illustrate the personality and emotions of the writer. I enjoyed how straight-forward and simple these poems were but at the same time, I felt as though the intended meaning was layered and pointed towards more than what was being said. For example, in The Aquamarine, the concept of being invisible in certain situations is an important point about social interaction and one's perceived place in society. The simple use of structure in these two poems makes them more accessible and emotionally powerful to me.

Bradfield Reviews and Q&A

The criticisms of Bradfield's poetry offer interesting insights. Jordan Davis' criticism begins with a precursor to his actual criticism of Bradfield's poetry in which he describes his form of criticism. At the end of this first paragraph, Davis states, "At best, this criticism is a Goldilocks affair of looking for the just right in a hunting lodge full of chairs and beds too big and too small." In a way, this is how I felt in reading Bradfield's collection, Approaching Ice. It was difficult to find a comfortable ground when dipping in between the present and the past to find meaning in the poems. Davis did have several criticisms about the use of language in Bradfield's first collection, Interpretive Work, but I did not find these criticisms to have much standing with relation to her most recent collection. I found that Davis a higher message of hope in Bradfield's poems. At the end of the review, he commends Bradfield's style and indicates that her approach to the ever-changing nature is needed the present day chaos.

In the second review, Jon Christensen focuses on Bradfield's attempt to "challenge the idea of queerness as not 'natural.'" I would have to read more of her first collection to relate to this point however I find this argument interesting in the larger context of Bradfield's poetry. As a naturalist, Bradfield's approach to queerness resonates strongly with me. Especially references to her poem, "Creation Myth" in which Bradfield refers to scientific explanations of female deer growing antlers. The mingling of queer poetry and naturalistic poetry is powerfully portrayed in Bradfield's poems. As she describes in her Q&A she tries to set the polar expeditions with the contemporary ideas of sexuality, race, gender and identity.

I watched a video on youtube in which Bradfield describes the significance of her poems. She discusses how sound is the major influence of her poems. How she hears something and she has to put it on paper. She also discusses how her work in naturalism creates the scope of her poems. I would love to know how sound and naturalism provide the inspiration for her poems. What kind of sounds ring that must be written down? How does Naturalism offer itself to be capture in words and in poems? Is it ever challenging to capture such a sublime force of nature into a single poem or collection of poems?

Approaching Ice

Bradfield uses structure and language to create a powerful collection of poems in Approaching Ice. Her narrative about Antarctic expeditions is structured in a way that takes the reader on an his or her own expedition. Bradfield uses specific language to relate the 21st century to the expeditions of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Contrary to other 21st century poets, Bradfield uses language that refers to the 21st century. In "On the Longing of Early Explorers," Bradfield relates the 21st century to the early explorers.

"Before satellites eyed the earth's whole surface

through the peephole of orbit...

They'd say in quaint accents and obscure

sentence structures-if only the unsullied could be discovered..."

This poem discusses how the planet has been used, discovered and ravaged. Bradfield refers to this concept several times in her poems. She uses the structure of her poems to highlight specific language that illustrates her point. She uses enjambment to give power to specific words or ideas. This concept is illustrated clearly in the poem, "Song of the Ice Breaker Prow." Bradfield places several harsh words at the end of her lines to emphasize her point about the expeditions into the Antarctic. All of the following words are used at the end of lines,

"breakers, fight, gored, force her, cracked, crashed, pushed, challengers, forced, ravager, deepening mark."

This use of language and structure emphasizes Bradfield's point about the Ice Breakers and how they illustrate the aggressive nature of the Antarctic expeditions. Also, the use of structure in Bradfield's collection as a whole creates a readable, understandable illustration of the expeditions.

We find Bradfield's emotional connection with her subject in the poem, "Wives of the Polar Explorers." This poem brings out the hidden emotional aspect of the expeditions. Bradfield's use of conflicting emotions and powerful language creates a meaningful collection of poems about more than just the antarctic expeditions.

Balancing the Antic Impulse and the Desire for Resonance

David Sewell's review of Young's poetry questions the balance of Young's poems. The concept of taking the serious seriously comes up a few times. This point criticizes Young's use of humor, pointing out that it takes away from the meaning of the poem and leaves less to resonate with the reader. While Young does use humor in his poetry, he strikes a balance with meaning creating poems that are enjoyable to read and resonate with the reader.

Sewell introduces Young's latest collection, Embryoyo, with this concept in mind. He writes that in Embryoyo, where Young is dealing with the concept of life and death, the "jokey-jokes are not as important or present in Young's poems. This could indicate a change in Young's style or an attempt to approach his poetry with a more serious tone. However, Sewell also comments that Young's poems are hard to follow, flying through the air like a bird and eventually reaching a certain point, but taking an adventure to get there. This struggle with some of Young's poems can add to the humor and overall significance of the poems. The opposing forces of the light-hearted humor, and the attempt to resonate with the reader create an enjoyable collection of poems.

This is the way I felt when reading Young's poems. While the poems were fun, they were not simply pictures to look at, they were more like games, trying to figure out the meaning and relate them to my life, therefore resonating with me. Young's poetry immediately grabbed me with his use of humor in discussing serious things. This did not mock his subjects, but rather strengthened my relation to his subjects. The ability to relate to Young's subjects is what created resonance and meaning in Young's poems for me.

Dean Young

Reading Dean Young after Flynn and Greenfield was like feeling the sun emerge after a horrific storm. In his poem, Acceptance Speech, Young writes,

"Poetry is the grinding of a multiplicity throwing off sparks, wrote Artaud and look what that got him toothlessness and Shock therapy."

and

"Do not spend a lot of time in a n asylum writing cruel poems if you can help it, one Artaud is enough."

The "grinding of multiplicity throwing of sparks," is how I feel about Flynn and Greenfields poems. The sparks of emotions derived from the grinding of pain results in a chaotic mess of words to illustrate emotion.

Young uses his poems to tell stories that the reader can identify with. The poems are not simply outpourings of emotion. They illustrate a certain idea or ideology but the illustration not completed by Young. The ideas that Young present are open to the reader's personal feelings toward the poems. This creates the elliptical feel of Young's poems. The poems never seemed to be completed on the paper. The reader is left to illustrate his or her own complete image of the ideas that Young presents. I found this in the poem, Elegy on Toy Piano.

Young starts,

"You don't need a pony

to connect you to the unseeable

or an airplane to connect you to the sky.

Necessary it is to love to live

and there are many manuals

but in all important ways

one is on one's own."

He finishes with,

"When something become ash,

there's nothing you can do to turn it back

About this, even diamonds do not lie."

Young makes a strong statement about what is necessary in life. While this statement about necessity is a solid one, it is left to the reader to play with. By making a bold point about the structure of life, Young deconstructs this very structure, leaving the reader with the lego blocks of life and prodding the reconstruction of something entirely new. This is why I loved Young's poems. They are playful and thought-provoking giving the reader a puzzle, and "this puzzle has 15 thousand solutions!"