Poetry Readers Challenge discussion
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You Must Remember This
2016 Reviews
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You Must Remember This by Michael Bazzett
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Thanks for the update. I look forward to your review of his latest book :) I think it's wonderful that he opened you up to the slippery world of surrealism.
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Simic had done that already, but Bazzett is farther out there.
Very thoughtful review, Jen. I think one reason I love this book so much may well be the flip-side of the "slipperiness" you reference: it's the extent to which Bazzett creates space for the reader's imagination to inhabit. I delighted in the evocative wit, and there's a strong storytelling impulse threading through much of the work, (the Edson reference is dead-on), but there's also a closet lyricism and weird music running throughout much of this book that keeps me returning to it. I was actually led here (to the Poetry Challenge) by Jenna's excellent review of "Almost Invisible" by Mark Strand, which shares a sensibility with the this book - although Bazzett is perhaps a bit more playful. Thanks, too, for the heads up, Alarie, on the forthcoming book.
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You are welcome!
Everything she says about the book is true but in the end I found it just a little too slippery for me, the surrealism just a touch too dark at times, a touch too dream-like in the sense of not cohering. Our individual dream symbolism has enough personal background and reference, in addition to the universal aspects, that we have handholds for making meaning. I felt like I didn't have enough handholds in some of these poems, especially the earlier ones. I do want to say that the degree of handholds is a totally personal preference on my part. I may need more (or less) than others. That said, Bazzett's poetry still has its charms and many of the poems do successfully navigate the blurry regions of surrealism without me feeling totally awash or groping in the dark.
Like Alarie, I enjoyed the humor, sometimes very subtle, sometimes more direct. One of the quirky aspects of the book that amused me was the repeated appearance of "orangutan." Even though it isn't ever completely decoded as to its special significance to the poet, it was delightful to have it reappear, first as a foiled expectation, then as a subtle self-reference, then as a disappointment.
Bassett's poetry is varied free verse. Most of his poems have internal forms they adhere to, those forms vary in line length and number of lines per stanza from poem to poem. The book is divided into 3 sections. The first contemplates time and identity. The second is pretty much the divorce section with the wonderful "Unspoken" in which "the unspeakable nature of their differences" requires that they settle them in "mime court." Part 3 further explores moments, again the word "blurry" comes to mind, when things go wrong. Here I can see the dreamlike quality serving the function of underscoring the difficulty of knowing when a line has been crossed and even what the line was.
Of poets I read, Russell Edson comes the most to mind, in part because some of his poems are very visceral. The calm poem "Recollection," a play on words, is a mild example. Here is an excerpt from the beginning:
Sometimes, after waking,
I take a moment to collect myself.
My mind wanders to the cabinet
where I keep one leg neatly folded,
held snug by a canvas strap.
The other is toppled like
firewood beside the bed.
The embroidered box on the bedside table
that once housed a blown-glass ornament
now holds my tongue,
that dark knot of sleeping muscle.
Here is the beginning of "Clockwatcher":
The night is not a hole
to fill with your thoughts.
It is not a sock to stuff
deep into the gob of morning
and hope the sun has
soiled itself there on the couch
where it collapsed after the gin.
And here is "How It Survived for a While" in totality:
It waited until we wandered home, then
limped to the sea where the rasping
mouths of hagfish cleaned its wounds.
For a while it disguised itself
as a hailstorm, but the constant
clattering loosened its teeth and the cold
became too difficult to bear.
It chose instead to become a forest thing,
gifted at disappearing. Yet it was
the trees themselves that gave it away,
frightened that one of them
had somehow learned to walk.
Now it will become our king! the whispered,
wrapping their roots like rope
tighter and tighter around its thick neck.
I would give this book 3 stars because although I liked it, it isn't quite my cup of tea. I wouldn't spurn another book by this poet but I also wouldn't go looking for one. This is based solely on my level of tolerance for the surreal, which I do like but have some limits, as mentioned above. However, if I saw him listed on an anthology, I would be instantly curious to see whether his contribution was one that would hit home with me or not--and whether the anthology had other surrealist poems. So I would say, enter at your own risk. It's not a great risk (only of befuddlement and perhaps a squeamish moment) but there is some risk. And, yes, I know that risk is just what some people are looking for.