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Field Guide to the End of the World
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Poetry (2016)Field Guide to the End of the World, winner of the 2015 Moon City Poetry Award, delivers a whimsical look at our culture’s obsession with apocalypse as well as a thoughtful reflection on our resources in the face of disasters both large and small, personal and public. Pop-culture characters—from Martha Stewart and Wile E. Coyote to zombie strippers and teen vampires—deliver humorous but insightful commentary on survival and resilience through poems that span imagined scenarios that are not entirely beyond the realm of possibility. The characters face their apocalypses in numerous ways, from strapping on rollerblades and swearing to taking notes as barns burn on the horizon. At the end of the world, the most valuable resource is human connection—someone holding our hands, reminding us “we are miraculous.”
72 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2016
5 people are currently reading
2163 people want to read
About the author
Jeannine Hall Gailey
21 books144 followersJeannine Hall Gailey is a poet with Multiple Sclerosis who served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington. She is the author of six books of poetry: Becoming the Villainess (Steel Toe Books, 2006,) She Returns to the Floating World (Kitsune Books, 2011,) Unexplained Fevers (New Binary Press, 2013) The Robot Scientist's Daughter (Mayapple Press, 2015), the winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and the SFPA's Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World, and the upcoming from BOA Editions, Flare, Corona. She's also written a guide to marketing for poets, PR for Poets. Her poems were featured on NPR's The Writer's Almanac and Verse Daily, and included in 2007's The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Her work has appeared in journals like The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, The American Poetry Review, and Poetry. She has an MA in English from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA from Pacific University.
Jeannine also writes book reviews which have appeared in The Rumpus, American Book Review, Calyx, The Pedestal Magazine, and The Cincinnati Review.
She has written technical articles and published a book on early web services technology with Microsoft Press in 2004.
Jeannine also writes book reviews which have appeared in The Rumpus, American Book Review, Calyx, The Pedestal Magazine, and The Cincinnati Review.
She has written technical articles and published a book on early web services technology with Microsoft Press in 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
September 12, 2016
A book full of science and tragedy, personal and global, intermixed with little currents of 'normal' American life continuing. Ina Garten and Martha Stewart, each in their own poems, for example, persist in post-apocalyptic landscapes, their personae functioning as stable little enclaves of affect of the sort the protagonists of post-apocalyptic stories like, say, "The Walking Dead" keep hoping to find. Lots of pop culture references throughout, and variations on the theme of the world ending, and a speaker who drops never-to-be-delivered postcards along the way.
In high-school physics, we're given to understand that relational motion means: if thing a is moving away from stationary thing b, one can also dependably consider thing b as moving away from stationary thing a. Likewise, as the poems here alter between personal and global calamity, one realizes that, to the speaker of the poems, they are, in a certain sense, experientially the same thing. Which gives the book an extra layer of punch. Touching, cool, and worthwhile book.
In high-school physics, we're given to understand that relational motion means: if thing a is moving away from stationary thing b, one can also dependably consider thing b as moving away from stationary thing a. Likewise, as the poems here alter between personal and global calamity, one realizes that, to the speaker of the poems, they are, in a certain sense, experientially the same thing. Which gives the book an extra layer of punch. Touching, cool, and worthwhile book.
September 1, 2016
Every time that I pick up a new collection by JHG I promise myself that I will savor it, a poem a day. Every time I end up tearing through as though nothing exists in the world except her poetry.
Field Guide to the End of the World is the darkest of Gailey's collections, surveying apocalypses great and small, global and personal. Despite this, there is still humor, still an appreciation for the beauty of life, still, even, hope. Postcards dot the collection like bread crumbs, and if you follow them you can find a single story through the destruction, the hopeless and unquenchable story of one lover writing to another although there is no longer a postal system, a government, even an address remaining. The end of days, Gailey prompts us, is not about dying. It is about life, and how it is lived.
Field Guide to the End of the World is the darkest of Gailey's collections, surveying apocalypses great and small, global and personal. Despite this, there is still humor, still an appreciation for the beauty of life, still, even, hope. Postcards dot the collection like bread crumbs, and if you follow them you can find a single story through the destruction, the hopeless and unquenchable story of one lover writing to another although there is no longer a postal system, a government, even an address remaining. The end of days, Gailey prompts us, is not about dying. It is about life, and how it is lived.
September 1, 2016
Picked it up with the intent to just thumb through it and ended up reading it cover to cover.
Review to come
Review to come
September 11, 2016
How will the world end? In a bang? A whimper? These are the questions that poet Jeannine Hall Gailey explores in her newest collection, Field Guide to the End of the World, winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize. Through a series of postcards, lists, and fragments of scribbles, Gailey looks at how we may face the end, on a global scale (the disappearance of bees and other nature ailments, bombs and wars, and biological warfare) and on a more personal scare (illness, disappearances, and death). A wonderful addition to the Jeannine Hall Gailey collection of poetry!
November 16, 2018
Postcard from the Other Side of Prose
I found a collection of poetry, though I suppose I didn't find it, it was shown to me. And I suppose it isn't poetry, or at least it didn't feel like poetry. They're more like little stories mostly, 'Flash Fiction' as the author called them. We got to speak with her, Jeanine Hall Gailey that is, at book-club. The theme is the apocalypse, but there's a lot of variety that I didn't expect. I expected to cry but not to laugh so much; should the doom of the civilization ever be funny? Maybe when Martha Stewart or Wily E. Coyote are involved. But what struck me the most was how many of the poems had those moments, the moments of emotional payoff, the moments you read whole novels hoping to find, but in this case accomplished in one page. I'd never before been moved like that by poetry.
I found a collection of poetry, though I suppose I didn't find it, it was shown to me. And I suppose it isn't poetry, or at least it didn't feel like poetry. They're more like little stories mostly, 'Flash Fiction' as the author called them. We got to speak with her, Jeanine Hall Gailey that is, at book-club. The theme is the apocalypse, but there's a lot of variety that I didn't expect. I expected to cry but not to laugh so much; should the doom of the civilization ever be funny? Maybe when Martha Stewart or Wily E. Coyote are involved. But what struck me the most was how many of the poems had those moments, the moments of emotional payoff, the moments you read whole novels hoping to find, but in this case accomplished in one page. I'd never before been moved like that by poetry.
September 18, 2016
The end of the world is coming—ack, it’s here, and Jeannine Hall Gailey wants to help us find our way, via what looks to be a well-worn atomic age textbooky field guide.
Field Guide to the End of the World is Ms. Gailey’s fifth poetry book. I have read The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and thought I knew what I was getting into with her newest (oldest?) book. Ah, but while there are similarities, the author has let her playful side out to romp through the debris of our final days.
The book sorts poems into groupings, which is nice for slipping into a frame of mind and lingering there a while. My favorite section, and I am pretty sure many readers will agree with this, is “Cultural Anthropology”. It’s a bit like reading the literary version of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, while watching the Food Channel on the side and sneaking peeks over to Netflix. The name that pops out of the poetry listings immediately, is, of course, Wile E. Coyote (super genius), who’s been living in a post-apocaplyse world since most of us wore footed jammies. Who better to enlist than this ill-fed quasi-predator to be one of the guides on our journey? As it turns out, that guide is as lost as the rest of us, but we can take comfort in wandering in circles together.
My personal favorite is “Letter to John Cusack, Piloting a Plane in an Apocalypse Movie”. Take some time to linger on each phrase, and remember. As the saying goes, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it will become a part of you. Actually, it already was, you just needed open eyes to see it.
But I didn’t simply hunker down (though hunkering down during the end days certainly has its merit) in the ‘funny’ chapter. Emotionally, I am still returning often to the “End Times Eschatology” chapter to re-read and re-experience how the end of the world will feel for others. The practical ones, the romantics, the selfless and the selfish, the god-fearers, mistake makers, job hunters. As humanity shares a singular ultimate fate, we approach it from so many diverse roads. There are as many ways to face the end as there are quirks and differences between one person and the next.
I highly recommend you take a field guide with you on your own personal journey.
Field Guide to the End of the World is Ms. Gailey’s fifth poetry book. I have read The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and thought I knew what I was getting into with her newest (oldest?) book. Ah, but while there are similarities, the author has let her playful side out to romp through the debris of our final days.
The book sorts poems into groupings, which is nice for slipping into a frame of mind and lingering there a while. My favorite section, and I am pretty sure many readers will agree with this, is “Cultural Anthropology”. It’s a bit like reading the literary version of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, while watching the Food Channel on the side and sneaking peeks over to Netflix. The name that pops out of the poetry listings immediately, is, of course, Wile E. Coyote (super genius), who’s been living in a post-apocaplyse world since most of us wore footed jammies. Who better to enlist than this ill-fed quasi-predator to be one of the guides on our journey? As it turns out, that guide is as lost as the rest of us, but we can take comfort in wandering in circles together.
My personal favorite is “Letter to John Cusack, Piloting a Plane in an Apocalypse Movie”. Take some time to linger on each phrase, and remember. As the saying goes, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it will become a part of you. Actually, it already was, you just needed open eyes to see it.
But I didn’t simply hunker down (though hunkering down during the end days certainly has its merit) in the ‘funny’ chapter. Emotionally, I am still returning often to the “End Times Eschatology” chapter to re-read and re-experience how the end of the world will feel for others. The practical ones, the romantics, the selfless and the selfish, the god-fearers, mistake makers, job hunters. As humanity shares a singular ultimate fate, we approach it from so many diverse roads. There are as many ways to face the end as there are quirks and differences between one person and the next.
I highly recommend you take a field guide with you on your own personal journey.
September 27, 2016
I have always felt poets have the hardest job. Of all writers, they create the jewel box, tender silken treasure out of pure mud. A poem draft might be written down in a few hours, but a really good poem demands all the time and attention of a good short story. Perhaps a novel.
That's why, when I read a collection of poems, a book of forty or a hundred poems, I count myself fortunate when I love two poems instead of just one. One good poem will mark a collection worthwhile. More than that makes a good book.
There might be a couple of poems in Jeannine Hall Gailey's newest collection that did not reach me; I would be hard pressed to recall them. There were dozens that were good, and many that were truly wonderful—intense, rich, distinctive and rewarding. I do not recall anything I disliked or found disappointing. I found a great deal that provoked and prodded and pushed me to think or feel something I had not expected.
I think my favorite of the five sections in this book might be the second, "Cultural Anthropology," because I loved every poem, like being allowed to eat an entire box of Almond Roca without getting sick afterwards. . But the line that keeps reeling through my mind is from "Grieving" near the end: "All I can do is capture these reminders, frame by frame, / these calls to life, to bleeding and feeding and ferociously / taking up space and time. *Here*, these flowers say, *here we were.*"
They choke me every time. Tears come. I feel tender toward the world, toward people and places and what will come after. I count myself lucky to have those three lines to keep. Thank you.
That's why, when I read a collection of poems, a book of forty or a hundred poems, I count myself fortunate when I love two poems instead of just one. One good poem will mark a collection worthwhile. More than that makes a good book.
There might be a couple of poems in Jeannine Hall Gailey's newest collection that did not reach me; I would be hard pressed to recall them. There were dozens that were good, and many that were truly wonderful—intense, rich, distinctive and rewarding. I do not recall anything I disliked or found disappointing. I found a great deal that provoked and prodded and pushed me to think or feel something I had not expected.
I think my favorite of the five sections in this book might be the second, "Cultural Anthropology," because I loved every poem, like being allowed to eat an entire box of Almond Roca without getting sick afterwards. . But the line that keeps reeling through my mind is from "Grieving" near the end: "All I can do is capture these reminders, frame by frame, / these calls to life, to bleeding and feeding and ferociously / taking up space and time. *Here*, these flowers say, *here we were.*"
They choke me every time. Tears come. I feel tender toward the world, toward people and places and what will come after. I count myself lucky to have those three lines to keep. Thank you.
October 19, 2016
Originally Posted @ https://readaholiczone.blogspot.com/2...
This is the first time for me reviewing a book of poetry, including reading one; so if this is not the most sophisticated review regarding poetry that you have read please have patience and keep in mind I will get better with time.
I sat and read this book twice due to how fascinating I found it. The book encompasses basically the end of everything from love, health and as the title tells us the world. Gailey is realistic in her writing, making this read feel far from fiction with her depiction of the death of bees, mass pollution of the planet, and how individuals handle their own demise these examples being just the tip of the melting iceberg. Even though I found the whole book impressive I especially enjoyed the section Hard Science and the postcards.
Knowing some of you might be thinking that this book sounds dreadfully depressing, I will reassure you it is far from that at times it is humorous, bizarre and contains a little of everything when it pertains to emotions. The title attracted me to this book, whereas Gailey's spectacular writing is now seducing me towards the genre of poetry.
Thanks to Poetic Book Tours for allowing me to give an honest review
This is the first time for me reviewing a book of poetry, including reading one; so if this is not the most sophisticated review regarding poetry that you have read please have patience and keep in mind I will get better with time.
I sat and read this book twice due to how fascinating I found it. The book encompasses basically the end of everything from love, health and as the title tells us the world. Gailey is realistic in her writing, making this read feel far from fiction with her depiction of the death of bees, mass pollution of the planet, and how individuals handle their own demise these examples being just the tip of the melting iceberg. Even though I found the whole book impressive I especially enjoyed the section Hard Science and the postcards.
Knowing some of you might be thinking that this book sounds dreadfully depressing, I will reassure you it is far from that at times it is humorous, bizarre and contains a little of everything when it pertains to emotions. The title attracted me to this book, whereas Gailey's spectacular writing is now seducing me towards the genre of poetry.
Thanks to Poetic Book Tours for allowing me to give an honest review
April 4, 2017
What a fantastic, fantastically sad collection! Gailey has done it again and produced a themed collection, which is fascinating, devastating and exciting all at once. I will be reviewing this Elgin Award nominated collection for Star*Line and Amazing Stories.
Star*Line review: http://www.sfpoetry.com/sl/reviews/16... (collections listed alphabetically)
Star*Line review: http://www.sfpoetry.com/sl/reviews/16... (collections listed alphabetically)
September 27, 2016
Also posted on Eva Lucias blog
Thanks to Poetic Book Tours!
”Field Guide to the End of the World” is a poetry collection written by Jeannine Hall Gailey.
How do I even start? How can a string of words make you not able to express a single word? Well, I’ll try anyway.
This poetry collection is brilliant. It’s fascinating and it truly defines modern poetry. When you start reading it, you are introduced to different glimpses of everyday-life, but it is so much more than that. Jeannine Hall Gailey creates a perfect setting for us, where we can read, reflect and develop ourselves. In a way, Jeannine Hall Gailey really gave me hope. She lets the words explain the simplest things yet the most deep and powerful ones. How we should not settle with life if we wish more of it, how we should see life as a journey and not only the result of it and at last; life is worth living to the fullest, and there is always hope no matter which situation you find yourself in.
“with games, whistling in the dark. You and I
pass the crayons back and forth, telling each other
once more the story of creation, stories of genomes
while the kind rabbits scramble over hills out of the sun.
Squabbing, we’re in a hurry to reach the end of our journey
settle down in our final destination”
There is so much to write about this poetry collection. Yet, I don’t want to spoil your reading experience, but it is fascinating how Jeannine Hall Gailey has created her poetry. Each poem is filled with symbolism, sensuous language, metaphors and hints that make us reflect, and think about life, death, dreams, goals and identity.
The titles open up to an entire story, and even before you start reading the actual text, your mind is exploding with descriptions and associations. There are no borders in contemporary literature and Jeannine Hall Gailey truly exemplifies this in her poetry. An example of this is the different scenarios presented in the poem “Yearbook: Not pictured”, which presents reminiscence, memories and possible “what if’s”-situations.
Some of the poems made me wonder and reflect. Others in a way seemed too simple and anonymous but once in a while, a poem truly broke me. So in a way, the “simple” poems were good because I wasn’t forced to blink my tears away after every poem :-)
Especially this poem really got to me:
“I can’t write you a note about this, I won’t say
So long, farewell, like I’m going on a trip
All I can do is capture these reminders, frame by frame
these calls to life, to bleeding and feeding and ferociously
taking up space and time. Here, these flowers say, here we were”
With these beautiful lines I will end this review and get ready for the next precious moment in my life. I can’t thank you enough, Jeannine Hall Gailey.
Blog ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Youtube ~ Spotify
Thanks to Poetic Book Tours!
”Field Guide to the End of the World” is a poetry collection written by Jeannine Hall Gailey.
How do I even start? How can a string of words make you not able to express a single word? Well, I’ll try anyway.
This poetry collection is brilliant. It’s fascinating and it truly defines modern poetry. When you start reading it, you are introduced to different glimpses of everyday-life, but it is so much more than that. Jeannine Hall Gailey creates a perfect setting for us, where we can read, reflect and develop ourselves. In a way, Jeannine Hall Gailey really gave me hope. She lets the words explain the simplest things yet the most deep and powerful ones. How we should not settle with life if we wish more of it, how we should see life as a journey and not only the result of it and at last; life is worth living to the fullest, and there is always hope no matter which situation you find yourself in.
“with games, whistling in the dark. You and I
pass the crayons back and forth, telling each other
once more the story of creation, stories of genomes
while the kind rabbits scramble over hills out of the sun.
Squabbing, we’re in a hurry to reach the end of our journey
settle down in our final destination”
There is so much to write about this poetry collection. Yet, I don’t want to spoil your reading experience, but it is fascinating how Jeannine Hall Gailey has created her poetry. Each poem is filled with symbolism, sensuous language, metaphors and hints that make us reflect, and think about life, death, dreams, goals and identity.
The titles open up to an entire story, and even before you start reading the actual text, your mind is exploding with descriptions and associations. There are no borders in contemporary literature and Jeannine Hall Gailey truly exemplifies this in her poetry. An example of this is the different scenarios presented in the poem “Yearbook: Not pictured”, which presents reminiscence, memories and possible “what if’s”-situations.
Some of the poems made me wonder and reflect. Others in a way seemed too simple and anonymous but once in a while, a poem truly broke me. So in a way, the “simple” poems were good because I wasn’t forced to blink my tears away after every poem :-)
Especially this poem really got to me:
“I can’t write you a note about this, I won’t say
So long, farewell, like I’m going on a trip
All I can do is capture these reminders, frame by frame
these calls to life, to bleeding and feeding and ferociously
taking up space and time. Here, these flowers say, here we were”
With these beautiful lines I will end this review and get ready for the next precious moment in my life. I can’t thank you enough, Jeannine Hall Gailey.
Blog ~ Facebook ~ Instagram ~ Youtube ~ Spotify
September 2, 2016
Field Guide to the End of the World by Jeannine Hall Gailey, which is the winner of the 2015 Moon City Poetry Award, is nothing short of phenomenal. While Gailey often puts herself in her poems, there are times when she adopts personas to create poems of female empowerment. This collection has a similar fantasy style (including a moment with Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius) to it with a post-apocalyptic setting, but it also is vastly more personal. While some of the poems may be a bit tongue-in-cheek about death (see “In Case”) and the end of the world and how duct tape is a miracle survival tool, underneath those quips is the seriousness that imminent danger and possible death bring.
Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2016/08/f...
Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2016/08/f...
January 7, 2017
I am stunned. I am blown away. I am every positive adjective. This is definitely my new favorite poetry book.
October 21, 2016
In the world of Jeannine Hall Gailey's field guide, the end came with neither a bang nor a whimper. Instead, it seems to have come as the sun flickered and flamed - a wayward sun, with "chilled sunshine leaving its dying rays on your face as we waved good-bye, good luck, barefoot on the wrecked beach." Our guide tells us to "keep a steady eye on the whirling dervish of the sun" as she alternates between chronicles of the last survivors in a ruined world, and her lifelong struggle with her own genome, gone horribly wrong, turning her into a mutation ("We don't spout doll's heads from our wrists," she says), with her life collapsing like colonies of bees.
Don't consider me
another mutant gone wrong, my betrayals in the distant backstory, my tears
now flow a green ooze as I try to heal the land, cesium in the sunflowers
goat genes welded into innocent corn.
Near Fukushima, "former beauticians with Geiger counters test the dangers of homegrown carrots." That disaster, at least, could be studied and quantified, but could someone - or something - have seen the apocalyptic tipping point and changed history? "I never saw the Ferris wheel start its fatal roll," she mourns, and she "left out the open petri dishes of polio and plague next to the pasta." Was the tipping point so small, so homely?
Interspersed amongst poems of frantic, last-minute grabs at normalcy ("is now the time for cake?") are postcards from the road. At "Appalachian Chalet," she is "next to a granite-strewn stream that gurgles amid sunbeams as if the whole world never went wrong." Martha Stewart collects drones, burbles about the romance of hurricane lamps, and says that "razor wire goes beautifully with your holly thicket." From an Anthropologie catalog, she finds "strappy leather sandals perfect for sand-charred paths... a woven bamboo suitcase as the future dissipates." From HGTV, she sees "a lone shoe on a staircase, the last vestige of someone's question: Take or leave? What, in the end, is essential baggage?"
Our guide is observant, bitterly funny, and dying. She muses about Dorothy in Oz (will she become "an eco-warrior in ruby heels" or create "a new phone app: Angry Flying Monkeys"?) and skewers the soothsayers and dream interpreters who would, inevitably, crop up and see Signs. "Beware foxes flying out your window; fractals indicate creativity...If the angel is spinning, it's time to pay attention." In this world, the "rough beast" (prophesied by Yeats in "Byzantium" as the center does not hold) does not slouch. This time, it is "the limping birth of the rough end of a dark age," one she has lived longer than most.
Once, she "looked away just as the plane plummeted." One thinks of Breughel's Icarus, in Auden's poem, as the ploughman never looks up to see "something amazing, a boy falling from the sky." "About suffering, they were never wrong, the Old Masters," observes Auden. Neither is our guide, who, seeing a baptism, says "you'll never be quite free no matter how you pray. You'll never claw the scales from your eyes."
Or will we? Perhaps there will be survivors, people to "pass the crayons back and forth, telling each other once more the story of creation, stories of genomes, while the kind rabbits scramble over hills out of the sun."
These are wonderful, chewy, imaginative poems that will haunt you and make you observe. Thank you, Serena Agusto-Cox of Poetic Book Tours, for including me in this round. Follow the link for more reviews.
Don't consider me
another mutant gone wrong, my betrayals in the distant backstory, my tears
now flow a green ooze as I try to heal the land, cesium in the sunflowers
goat genes welded into innocent corn.
Near Fukushima, "former beauticians with Geiger counters test the dangers of homegrown carrots." That disaster, at least, could be studied and quantified, but could someone - or something - have seen the apocalyptic tipping point and changed history? "I never saw the Ferris wheel start its fatal roll," she mourns, and she "left out the open petri dishes of polio and plague next to the pasta." Was the tipping point so small, so homely?
Interspersed amongst poems of frantic, last-minute grabs at normalcy ("is now the time for cake?") are postcards from the road. At "Appalachian Chalet," she is "next to a granite-strewn stream that gurgles amid sunbeams as if the whole world never went wrong." Martha Stewart collects drones, burbles about the romance of hurricane lamps, and says that "razor wire goes beautifully with your holly thicket." From an Anthropologie catalog, she finds "strappy leather sandals perfect for sand-charred paths... a woven bamboo suitcase as the future dissipates." From HGTV, she sees "a lone shoe on a staircase, the last vestige of someone's question: Take or leave? What, in the end, is essential baggage?"
Our guide is observant, bitterly funny, and dying. She muses about Dorothy in Oz (will she become "an eco-warrior in ruby heels" or create "a new phone app: Angry Flying Monkeys"?) and skewers the soothsayers and dream interpreters who would, inevitably, crop up and see Signs. "Beware foxes flying out your window; fractals indicate creativity...If the angel is spinning, it's time to pay attention." In this world, the "rough beast" (prophesied by Yeats in "Byzantium" as the center does not hold) does not slouch. This time, it is "the limping birth of the rough end of a dark age," one she has lived longer than most.
Once, she "looked away just as the plane plummeted." One thinks of Breughel's Icarus, in Auden's poem, as the ploughman never looks up to see "something amazing, a boy falling from the sky." "About suffering, they were never wrong, the Old Masters," observes Auden. Neither is our guide, who, seeing a baptism, says "you'll never be quite free no matter how you pray. You'll never claw the scales from your eyes."
Or will we? Perhaps there will be survivors, people to "pass the crayons back and forth, telling each other once more the story of creation, stories of genomes, while the kind rabbits scramble over hills out of the sun."
These are wonderful, chewy, imaginative poems that will haunt you and make you observe. Thank you, Serena Agusto-Cox of Poetic Book Tours, for including me in this round. Follow the link for more reviews.
September 15, 2017
Warning messages abound: "Everything is temporary." "Everything is so fragile." "Your experience may not be statistically significant." "Einstein told us, We...drift toward unparalled catastrophies." And in the poem An "Introduction to Salvation" she questions, "Do you claim your hands are clean? But look at the blood/you've spilled to get here." And in the poem "The End of the Future," "Looks bleaker than we thought, the end is near. All those signs."
It took me a long time to read this book, especially living in the times we do. And, it is a book that is important, I'd say necessary. Jeannine Hall Gailey has a unique writing quality that mixes the most hard to swallow truth with a light touch. Her last book "The Robot Scientist's Daughter" is one of my favorites. Do read her work, she has swallowed the truth of our times, digested it, and she hands it to you in a well crafted book of poems. My hope is that her words will stir you to make a difference.
It took me a long time to read this book, especially living in the times we do. And, it is a book that is important, I'd say necessary. Jeannine Hall Gailey has a unique writing quality that mixes the most hard to swallow truth with a light touch. Her last book "The Robot Scientist's Daughter" is one of my favorites. Do read her work, she has swallowed the truth of our times, digested it, and she hands it to you in a well crafted book of poems. My hope is that her words will stir you to make a difference.
June 13, 2017
“If we can still remember, / then somewhere things must be better than here,” Jeannine Hall Gailey states toward the end of Field Guide to the End of the World, her most beautiful collection to date. Gailey’s Field Guide ask us to pay attention to the things we love in this world, which are not the things made by humans, but trees and insects, the shadows of mountains, and the companionship of others. This is how we’ll survive: not by our curiosity but by our strength. This collection contains Gailey’s wit, as well as the voices of scientists, mathematicians, Poison Ivy, and Dorothy Gale, but also includes the things we’d leave behind at the end of the world, like postcards and yearbooks. Gailey asks us to remember what we have collected during our lives, from every corner.
September 23, 2017
A very relevant book. It jist won an Elgin Award. I reviewed this collection for the Poets and Artists Blog. The review is followed by several sample poems. Following is a link to the review. https://www.poetsandartists.com/magaz...
September 21, 2017
Hall Gailey seems to have visited the end of the world and survived, and each page convinces us of this.
Her take on the world, its history, and sweet nothings turn into the closest glimpse of humanity the post-apocalyptic world can get.
Her take on the world, its history, and sweet nothings turn into the closest glimpse of humanity the post-apocalyptic world can get.
August 5, 2017
This collection is quite lovely, drawing from both the past and the future, and mixing them into a surreal but real and relatable present. Enjoyable read.
March 26, 2024
I really loved the style of the poetry in this book. It almost feels like a random rambling of nonsense, which I enjoy. While most of it didn’t *speak to me* like some poems do, it was an enjoyable read!
August 3, 2022
Published in 2015 and more relevant now than ever.
March 7, 2017
If the world is going to end, let it end in a poetic manner, not because some orange colored nincompoop pushed some buttons in anger.
August 18, 2023
One of the things I am loving about participating in #thesealeychallenge2023 is not only "discovering" poets previously unknown to me, but falling in love with their books. Day 17's book is no exception!
This book is funny and devastating, clear and precise, and wacky and topical. It is incredibly creative!
There are 5 Sections, all titled. Throughout the book, we meet a variety of people, including Martha Stewart, Batman, Carl Sagan, Superman, Lois Lane, Frank O'Hara, Scarlet O'Hara, Tom Petty, Dorothy Gale, John Cusack, Hedy Lamaar, Nelson Mandela, Joan of Arc, Elvis, Bram Stoker, Glinda the Good Witch, the Virgin Mary, Alice (Go Ask Alice) and Rita Dove. My goodness--what a fun party that would be!
There are free verse poems, sonnets, and prose poems, and most of the poems take the form of epistolaries, brochures, class descriptions, postcards, and school notes. There are a lot of persona poems, too, which I love, and a lot of references to popular culture, which I also love. This diversity is great, as the tone remains constant throughout, even when the poem is funny and even when the poem is sad.
I honestly loved every poem that was titled "Introduction to . . . " but stand-outs include Disaster Preparedness, Mutagenesis, to the Body, Field Studies, Time Travel Theory, and California Poetics. Other poems I am enamored with include Letter to John Cusack, Yearbook: Not Pictured, Welcome to the Sixth Extinction, The Last Love Poem, Notes from Before, and Remnant.
Besides the poets already mentioned, there are also nods to Bashō, Emily Dickinson, and Dylan Thomas, among others.
If you are new to poetry, or returning after a long absence, this book is a great way to jump back in!
A few favorite bits:
"The sky-blue Plymouth of our lives is lined
in sticky vinyl and no one is playing the music
I like."
--Are We There Yet?
"I have a wool sweater on my heart"
--Introduction to the Limits of Metaphor (A Love Poem)
"Carl Sagan lied to you about the natural selection of crabs"
--Introduction to Junk Science
"Embrace the order of things . . . "
--A Primer for Reading 23 pairs of Chromosomes, or, Introduction to Your own Personal Genome Project
"Dreams about hurricanes and bears are a warning."
--Introduction to Dream Interpretation
"If my own light is burning out, then it feels right
that the earth should, too."
--A narcissist's Apocalypse
"This is how I grieve: Take pictures of trees.
I amy be saying good-bye with photographs."
--Grieving
If you like poems that make you think, shiver, laugh out loud, smile in recognition, remember the past, worry about the future, feel okay about the future, pair this book with Mary Biddinger's Partial Genius and a bottle of wine and have yourself a weekend!
#TheSealey Challenge
This book is funny and devastating, clear and precise, and wacky and topical. It is incredibly creative!
There are 5 Sections, all titled. Throughout the book, we meet a variety of people, including Martha Stewart, Batman, Carl Sagan, Superman, Lois Lane, Frank O'Hara, Scarlet O'Hara, Tom Petty, Dorothy Gale, John Cusack, Hedy Lamaar, Nelson Mandela, Joan of Arc, Elvis, Bram Stoker, Glinda the Good Witch, the Virgin Mary, Alice (Go Ask Alice) and Rita Dove. My goodness--what a fun party that would be!
There are free verse poems, sonnets, and prose poems, and most of the poems take the form of epistolaries, brochures, class descriptions, postcards, and school notes. There are a lot of persona poems, too, which I love, and a lot of references to popular culture, which I also love. This diversity is great, as the tone remains constant throughout, even when the poem is funny and even when the poem is sad.
I honestly loved every poem that was titled "Introduction to . . . " but stand-outs include Disaster Preparedness, Mutagenesis, to the Body, Field Studies, Time Travel Theory, and California Poetics. Other poems I am enamored with include Letter to John Cusack, Yearbook: Not Pictured, Welcome to the Sixth Extinction, The Last Love Poem, Notes from Before, and Remnant.
Besides the poets already mentioned, there are also nods to Bashō, Emily Dickinson, and Dylan Thomas, among others.
If you are new to poetry, or returning after a long absence, this book is a great way to jump back in!
A few favorite bits:
"The sky-blue Plymouth of our lives is lined
in sticky vinyl and no one is playing the music
I like."
--Are We There Yet?
"I have a wool sweater on my heart"
--Introduction to the Limits of Metaphor (A Love Poem)
"Carl Sagan lied to you about the natural selection of crabs"
--Introduction to Junk Science
"Embrace the order of things . . . "
--A Primer for Reading 23 pairs of Chromosomes, or, Introduction to Your own Personal Genome Project
"Dreams about hurricanes and bears are a warning."
--Introduction to Dream Interpretation
"If my own light is burning out, then it feels right
that the earth should, too."
--A narcissist's Apocalypse
"This is how I grieve: Take pictures of trees.
I amy be saying good-bye with photographs."
--Grieving
If you like poems that make you think, shiver, laugh out loud, smile in recognition, remember the past, worry about the future, feel okay about the future, pair this book with Mary Biddinger's Partial Genius and a bottle of wine and have yourself a weekend!
#TheSealey Challenge
February 10, 2018
The title may be the best part--
and the title of the poems.
The poems themselves are a bit too on-the-nose for my tastes. Although the subject matter could not be more different, I was put in mind of Mary Oliver, who is also very straightforward. The scansion works, and the imagery but--for my money--the poems didn't sing. Once thing I personally look for in poetry is the way to measures the density of emotional moments, or brings to light the meaning of moments I myself cannot quite put into words.
That's not the case here, really. In some respects, Gaily seems as though what she'd really like to be is an essayist. And, indeed, a number of the poems here read more like essays, though with much beter rhythm and meter; but they make their point very directly.
What Gailey is interested in is the apocalyptic, and how it is built into our everyday experiences; she tries to bring out the contrast between the visceral, stripped-down sense of what apocalyptic life--burned down to its bare bones--and the plastic, over-caffeinated consumer culture of the modern world. What's it like to be an acolyte of Martha Stewart after the bombs fly? How will Ina Garten's lessons help us when the machines stop?
Underlying these questions is the broader one of how we survive minor, personal apocalypses throughout our lives. The modern world is plastic--and plastic can be resilient.
There's a playful, potentially surrealistic hint in these questions that is never developed. They stay too earnest.
Still, these are not bad. They can be spurs to thought; the premises worth musing over, even if the poems themselves are never fully developed.
and the title of the poems.
The poems themselves are a bit too on-the-nose for my tastes. Although the subject matter could not be more different, I was put in mind of Mary Oliver, who is also very straightforward. The scansion works, and the imagery but--for my money--the poems didn't sing. Once thing I personally look for in poetry is the way to measures the density of emotional moments, or brings to light the meaning of moments I myself cannot quite put into words.
That's not the case here, really. In some respects, Gaily seems as though what she'd really like to be is an essayist. And, indeed, a number of the poems here read more like essays, though with much beter rhythm and meter; but they make their point very directly.
What Gailey is interested in is the apocalyptic, and how it is built into our everyday experiences; she tries to bring out the contrast between the visceral, stripped-down sense of what apocalyptic life--burned down to its bare bones--and the plastic, over-caffeinated consumer culture of the modern world. What's it like to be an acolyte of Martha Stewart after the bombs fly? How will Ina Garten's lessons help us when the machines stop?
Underlying these questions is the broader one of how we survive minor, personal apocalypses throughout our lives. The modern world is plastic--and plastic can be resilient.
There's a playful, potentially surrealistic hint in these questions that is never developed. They stay too earnest.
Still, these are not bad. They can be spurs to thought; the premises worth musing over, even if the poems themselves are never fully developed.
June 24, 2024
Field Guide to the End of the World is a wry exploration of the fragile, fleeting nature of our existence and our obsession with the apocalypse while it feels like the world is ending a little every day. I enjoy Gailey’s humorous pop culture references—especially the Post-Apocalypse Postcards—and her thoughtful transitions in style and tone. Smoothly shifting between playful and pessimistic, this collection beings with whimsical what-if’s and riffs on popular apocalypse tropes before settling into something more somber, asking what might be left at the end of the world to make like worth living.
If you're looking for a playful poetry collection about the apocalypse that doesn't pull any punches, you should definitely read Field Guide for the End of the World. Gailey's dark humor makes this collection fun to read, while her finesse in flitting between speculation and reality leaves you thinking long after the end of the book.
If you're looking for a playful poetry collection about the apocalypse that doesn't pull any punches, you should definitely read Field Guide for the End of the World. Gailey's dark humor makes this collection fun to read, while her finesse in flitting between speculation and reality leaves you thinking long after the end of the book.
January 2, 2018
It can be unimaginably rare to find a book that speaks your language--especially when your language is the language of apocalypse. To find one that contemplates the end times with honesty, humor, and non-cheesy pop culture references is even rarer still. And yet, here it is--its 62 poems organized into five sections: Disaster Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Hard Science, A Primer for Your Personal Genome Project, and End Time Eschatology. Personally, I loved the first and last sections the most. They almost felt more like connected narratives than a collection of individual pieces. But what I loved most about it is that, like all the very best apocalypse fiction (and poetry), it ended with hope in the form of my two very favorite poems in the collection: Grieving and Epilogue: A Story for After. This is one I will come back to again and again.
September 19, 2023
Field Guide to the End of the World, winner of the 2015 Moon City Poetry Award, delivers a whimsical look at our culture’s obsession with apocalypse as well as a thoughtful reflection on our resources in the face of disasters both large and small, personal and public. Pop-culture characters—from Martha Stewart and Wile E. Coyote to zombie strippers and teen vampires—deliver humorous but insightful commentary on survival and resilience through poems that span imagined scenarios that are not entirely beyond the realm of possibility. The characters face their apocalypses in numerous ways, from strapping on rollerblades and swearing to taking notes as barns burn on the horizon. At the end of the world, the most valuable resource is human connection—someone holding our hands, reminding us “we are miraculous.”
February 8, 2018
"If you don't stay in your tower you're bound for trouble./This too is code. Your body is the tower you long to escape." --"Introduction to the Body in Fairy Tales"
*
"The bones of the dinosaurs lying in shallow desert graves/remind us: we were not here first, we will not be here last." --"Welcome to the Sixth Extinction"
*
"We thought we had outrun it but the earth crumbled/just as we were finding the light. I'm toasting you again/with the last of the champagne. I feel a little less alive/each morning. Every stone becomes a church./Every star that winks out is named after you." --"Post-Apocalypse Postcard with Love Note"
*
"The bones of the dinosaurs lying in shallow desert graves/remind us: we were not here first, we will not be here last." --"Welcome to the Sixth Extinction"
*
"We thought we had outrun it but the earth crumbled/just as we were finding the light. I'm toasting you again/with the last of the champagne. I feel a little less alive/each morning. Every stone becomes a church./Every star that winks out is named after you." --"Post-Apocalypse Postcard with Love Note"
September 4, 2017
In several short poems, the author explores survival, not-survival, and observations on how the world might end.
I don't like poetry. I don't dislike poetry - I just steer away from reading it. I tried this book because of a description of one of the poem's contents: Martha Stewart's guide to the end of the world! And - I liked it. My favorites were "Introduction to Mutagenesis" and "A Primer for Reading 23 Pairs of Chromosomes". A book for scientists and fans of apocalyptic fiction - who would have thought there'd be a poetry book out there for me?
I don't like poetry. I don't dislike poetry - I just steer away from reading it. I tried this book because of a description of one of the poem's contents: Martha Stewart's guide to the end of the world! And - I liked it. My favorites were "Introduction to Mutagenesis" and "A Primer for Reading 23 Pairs of Chromosomes". A book for scientists and fans of apocalyptic fiction - who would have thought there'd be a poetry book out there for me?
June 27, 2019
I always love poetry collections with an innovative theme and this one is no exception; I've been so excited to read this and was waiting until I was in the right mode to truly appreciate it. I love when a poet can straddle that line between comedic/ironic and casual devastation without going one way or the other (something too overly doom and gloom feels to weighty and something that's just POP CULTURE POP CULTURE POP CULTURE feels so shallow). The different forms, personas, and approaches in this collection is such a highlight.
October 29, 2024
In hindsight it maybe wasn't the best idea to read this one right as we are about to have a potentially apocalyptic election. The subject matter felt a little heavier than it would have normally, I think.
Lots of dark humor and heartache here. My personal favorite was "Yearbook: Not Pictured" for the sheer melancholy.
Lots of dark humor and heartache here. My personal favorite was "Yearbook: Not Pictured" for the sheer melancholy.
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