Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

[I know this chapbook has already been posted about by other group members -- just putting my own review here so that I can count it toward my total :-)]

Here, mastodons are used as an opening to talk about not only extinction and the environment, but also father-daughter relationships, death, grief, and self-examination/-excoriation, as well as history and collective guilt (especially as pertains to Thomas Jefferson and the institution of slavery). Olson makes extensive use of what currently seems to be a rather zeitgeist-y form of prose poem, one that I first saw used by Fanny Howe in her wonderful poem "Doubt", where stanzas alternate among multiple disparate subjects or settings, letting the juxtaposition do much of the work of bringing out what resonances might exist among them. It was an awakening to see this form pushed to its limits, especially in a tightly knit chapbook such as this, where there is such dense thematic overlap among all the pieces. Although the historical themes seemed to take center stage more, I found myself more tantalized by Olson's elliptical explorations of the knotty complexity of father-daughter bonds.

Thanks Jenna. This looks good -- great to hear you enjoyed it too.

Thanks, S. I suppose I've been more drawn to father-daughter themes in literature lately.