Contributors include nikki reimer, Jonathan Ball, ryan fitzpatrick, melanie brannagan frederiksen, Claire Lacey, William Neil Scott, Natalie Zina Walschots and Meghan Doraty, among others...
94. Hump (Ariel Gordon)
A first poetry collection organized around the poet’s pregnancy, Hump could move in a lot of lousy directions but Gordon reigns in the sentimentality as much as possible to produce a set of clever and curious poems.Although loving, the poems also give away her frustration and otherwise focus on the changes in her life that the child hath wrought.
I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to, given that this generally isn’t my “thing” — Gordon also has a good eye for alliteration and internal rhythm and makes better use of compound adjectives than I’ve seen in a while (in the early poems, that is, the ones that have nothing to do with the child but set up a contrast so that the changes in her life become apparent).
How often do you see a well-used compound adjective in poetry? A tiny excerpt for you:
I wanted to write a tender poem
about you that marked the moment months in,
months in, when your dry furious cheeks
first wetted down
…
but I don’t remember when it was
…
& I would still give just about anything
for a moment to myself
& oh fuck you just woke up—
— Jonathan Ball
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