Micah:
ok i might be going to bed really soon but i Have A Few Thoughts from percolation during the day
one, there’s a lot of mixing of ethereal(?) + matter of fact? which i find interesting and sometimes jarring. like “drenched in gossamer….takes more effort than you’d think…supposed to be a child” (page 13)
which i guess might just also be a kind of subtextual representation of a child shoved into a complex context??
also: “marsh in mouth, a hurricane wept into 29 tabs open” on page 6 which is definitely the jarring kind
i’m really liking some kind of strange quality but not sure exactly what it is. displacement?
favorites are, after long battle, saint hyacinth basilica and sorry for taking
Charlotte:
Amazing! Thank you so much for kicking us off!
I think something that really struck me in these pages was the complicated grinding of inner/former child self against a grown self. Displacement is definitely forefront in these poems, at least this first section; and I thought it was really telling that the first poem is titled “An Anchor is an Argument.” I really liked the reappearance of the word anchor in “Salt of the Earth,” too, because I felt it indicated something the rest of the book is going to be toying with, what being anchored looks like and means and what the consequences (good and bad) of that are
Also, I was delighted by the eroticism of some of these poems. The phrase “Bowl of honey pelvis / rocked to pleasure, rocked to tears” (p. 5) has been playing on repeat in my mind all day.
Other beautiful lines I’ve been turning over: “airglow: sky a cicatrix: purpling, paler” (p. 19), and “I keep only the finest of a thousand lies” (p. 8) which actually plays beautifully with the subsequent line on page 16, “a good daughter is a secret keeper”
I’m excited to see where sexuality and displacement and identity start to blur a little more into one another as the collection moves forward. There’s a dreamy, blurry quality to this collection, like looking through smoked glass. I’m def excited to see more exploration of some of the promises we get in “An Anchor is an Argument,” like with the line “A child is the wrong technology for dreaming” (p. 1).
So far I think my fav two are “Eros and Sorrow” and “Saint Hyacinth Basilica.” But I too found it a tough battle; these poems slap
Saturday, May 3
Micah: YEAH like we are physically put into her child’s body in many parts, but also the literal moving countries
and being anchored vs being An Anchor
that first one has been stuck in my brain for sure
yeah i think the eroticism/love life spilling is serving as an……..anchor…..for me right now in all the flowery veils and layers of time
Charlotte: Totally!
I’m so curious to see how the erotics play out with “anchoring.” I think atm Saint Hyacinth Basillica feels like it’s capturing a LOT of these thoughts all in one place
Micah: yeah that was a crazy one
i feel like we will be coming back to it
Charlotte: Definitely. Any other thoughts before we jump to section 2? This collection feels v percolatey to me—I’m excited to see what sticks and what shifts as we keep reading
Micah: no big ones, but I’m sure the connections with section one will start to jump out
“slip a hand in my pocket to touch other borders, feeling for the place in the linen worn thin” (23) – maps are popping up as an interesting character, i was also struck earlier by the line in the second poem like “i would draw you a map if it would not divide” “let landscapes skip rocks across our faces / pressed up against the glass … fogging up the window drawing hearts” – again ridiculous (in a good way) imagery glued right onto the simple car-riding experiences making a very vivid monster
Archival (25): i am trying to write an essay about dissection! but dissection as a more metaphorical result of moving is cool- by moving from point A to point B we halve ourselves because, looking at time not just as what is true Right Now but what Has Been true ever, we “are in” both point A and B. does that make sense. “finish splits from color”. “do not fix me to the vanishing point” doesn’t fit in my theory but is awesome
On Devotion (26) – cyclical time i.e. winter happening over and over and time is passing but it’s still winter, church is still church from Poland to anywhere;
I love the last stanza!! “Sometimes I think of God while washing my feet” – i am singing at a church this year and so am learning Lots about the traditions. but the highlight was Maundy Thursday which is (i have learned) the commemoration of the last supper, and like christ goes around and washes all his disciples feet and says to love one another “as I have loved you”. and the service went on forever, but it was an interesting exercise of thinking of a generally-immortal figure as singular, and as far as anyone knew, about to die, and that would be it. “I think of God” like he’s an old friend. feel like this poem brings devotion “down to earth” but in a way that doesn’t flatten either one
realized i shouldn’t assume if you know what maundy thursday is, but i sure didn’t, so just in case haha
Charlotte: Yes, I do know Maundy Thursday, but it’s definitely more of a deep cut! 😂But I think you’re completely spot on. I am loving the way religion is bending and being pushed in this section.
Micah: yes exactly
Charlotte: Alright, my main thought that has been rolling around like a marble in my brain as I’m walking my dog next to the Charles (I’m Boston-based!)
I think rivers are a primary site of movement in this section
At first I was tracking the religion and the way identity and womanhood and daughterhood interact, which is definitely an omnipresent set of themes in what I anticipate will be across this whole book, but for me the constant returning to rivers, usually “the river” in the text which I’m so curious what you interpret as.
I wonder if the use of rivers so regularly throughout these pages relates to your comments on dissection. It obviously relates to your comments on maps, as rivers are so geographical in the literal, but they so often function as a boundary line/dividing line. On page 30 in “Borderwound” the phrase “cicha woda coming for my outlines” really jumped out—what does it mean for “still waters” to be slowly erasing your own boundaries?
Ties into the “On Devotion” ending, too, with the narrator washing her own feet with water and stating “I think of where I have not walked my longing / to go further”
Micah: omg yes
im in the rain and also in a rush so bear with me
+ halfway thru
but I think the dual connotation of river being a site of violence but also a site of cleansing is always super interesting
Charlotte: Oh hell yeah
Micah: and the division/dissection thing you said is awesome
Charlotte: Healing and hurt as completely inseparable
Micah: just stepped in a puddle
YEAH
Charlotte: OH NO NOT A PUDDLE
Micah: also i totally did not connect these two stanzas hahaha that is coolH
in crocs!
Charlotte: :( not the crocs!
Micah: my minor sylvia plath obsession is begging me to make the “her feet seem to be saying, we have come so far, it is over” connection, from the edge
will come back to borderwound when i get there. fascinating and (river-) loaded name
Charlotte: Oh Plath is such a good comp here, I didn’t even think of that!! ^^and oh big time, stoked to hear what you think!
Micah: concert, then thoughts!!
Charlotte: You shall be sophisticated, I shall be watching Alien v Predator 🫡
Micah: maps must divide or whatever they say ➗
“the city of my almost…that what I won’t let myself have is my horizon. water that won’t run out.” ?!?!?!? (28)
yes borderwound is in fact fascinating, “every time poland was erased the wisła river remained: - some kind of more inherent geography than nation-based?
“timbre of the unsaid / flushing the house with worship” awesome contrast of wanting + shutting up, being closed vs Washing (31) .. i just want to quote the whole poem…
“to try to contain anything is to rid it of water” (32) yes it seems we have Observed A Theme
Charlotte: I know the language in it is so stunning. “Pipe Organ” is so striking.
Micah: yes!
Charlotte: I know the language in it is so stunning. “Pipe Organ” is so striking.
I also just love the title “Floodplain” it’s such a great way to get into that poe
The erosion and destruction but also the purpose of a floodplain? To serve and to be destroyed and to return?
Micah: 😳
great point i kind of looked past the title
which i should not be doing btw. all of these titles are really perfect
Charlotte: Truly it wasn’t until you started talking about it that I doubled back. I always feel that with poetry though—it takes two or three or six times to feel it, and the words just keep building on it
Micah: yes I know it’s so cool, you have to keep floating back over and over again
my professor has been very pertinent about how “reading a poem once is not having read it at all” and all that lmao but it is more true every day
i haven’t had the patience and/or company to read any of these out loud but soon.. i hope…
Charlotte: Oh, reading it out loud is a brilliant idea. No company atm but I will def read it to my dog (and company tomorrow). I love hearing the rhythm of the words; it’s cool because even on the page and reading to myself I can hear it. They’re very flowy even when the language is sharp
Micah: yeah!
ive gotten a lot more into reading poems out loud this year it’s just so cool how you can embody it
like it’s on the page and also in the air and in your mouth and in your listeners ear
very strange
Charlotte: Man I’d love to hear Humienik read some out loud, too. It’s so special hearing an author read their own work.
Micah: im going to hit the hay soon but i have one last quote: “I ask my lover to lie on top of me / so I can make a lasting imprint” (objects 37),
and one query: Because Horse is the Closest I Can Get to It ?????? i love all the words but/and am very in the air comprehension-wise
true! I haven’t even googled her. didn’t want to spoil it?? whatever that means
Charlotte: Oh facts no I only read her bio 😂 I always like to do book first and then performances, if there are any!
Hmm re: the horses poem, I am wondering if context will be given later, like why horses specifically, but the vibes are immaculate
Micah: yeah that’s a great strategy
Charlotte: Also, before we go to bed (I too am about to zonk) any favorites from this section? It feels even harder this go than the last 😂
Micah:oh so true ummmm
the pipe organ struck a chord (get it ha ha ha) for sure. and maybe the horses poem. but there are a lot of strong ones/lines/images
you?
Charlotte: “On Devotion” and “Archival” might be mine. But aagh there are so many gorgeous lines in so many of them
Micah: ooh good choices
Charlotte: You too!! This is such a fun way to read a collection. I’m stoked for tomorrow’s sections and also the inevitable 4 am percolations 😂
Micah: same here!!
i feel like this is a good obligation/tradition to have
Charlotte: Totally. And really fun to get into a groove with it!!
Well, good night from my very sleepy girl!!
Micah: awww!!!! what’s her name!
and good night sleep/percolate well
Charlotte: Seelie!! She’s crazy but a good girl and very patient when I stay up too late reading 😂😂
Micah: that’s such a sweet name 🥺🥺
i would reciprocate but Edward the cat lives with my parents 😔 alas i hit the hay
Charlotte: EDWARD
A phenomenal cat name
Micah: thank you!!! did you ever come across jenny and the cat club/pickles the firecat (children’s books)? origin of name. i would highly recommend
Charlotte: Omg no but I will check it out
Sunday, May 4
Micah: vague thoughts from today:
self splits from self (56)/I left one of my bodies (53)/I don’t always know which is mine (51)
in connection and contrast with “We” which is So crossing the Brooklyn ferry/Whitman, phrases are separate and spread out but subjects are brought together
night as a kind of person really struck me, that it find her because “I knew you’d be here” (47) instead of because the night inevitably comes no matter what seems very sweet to me- conscious, intentional visits (dreams, sleep) instead of by chance. or changing the idea of “by chance” to not dismiss the meaning behind any occurrence. sense?
“no matter how much salt is in your head you still have a body” (45) – speaking of salt, James Merrill started existing on my radar for real this week because of “A Look Upwards”
and the first stanza of bodies of hours (53) REALLY reminds me of some poem i will try to figure out what it is and why
Charlotte: Oh yes 100%! I hadn’t even thought of Whitman as I was reading this collection, but now that you say it, I def see it
“I build a cathedral / inside my skull” (41) has been humming in my own skull all day
Also, idk if you looked up the Hélène Delmaire painting but it’s STUNNING. I think it’s so cool when artists incorporate works of other mediums into their own works, and the self-portrait poem is such a beautiful word-rendering of a beautiful painting while STILL pulling through and seeping with its own meaning
Other fav lines: “my nervous system / the closest thing to matrilineage” (51); “what is the softest thing / you’ve ever held hostage” (48), “Blue is a memorial” (53)
Report back on the Bodies of Hours line! I’m so curious what it triggered. That was a top poem for me in this section, although I think I want to sleep on it to pick a favorite.
Micah: THANK you for this reminder i was going to in the morning and i forgot
such a cool painting! and definitely pulls the poem into a clearer light for me
(the painting. for future readers?)
Charlotte: Absolutely!! And I think it refocused it in a cool way.
Micah: yes it’s so strange how mediums magnetize each other like you were saying
Charlotte: And I love the way the walls behind the woman are described—it’s so visually dynamic, and the poem is so dynamic in its description. “how when spring came, / it was earned” is crazy
Micah: will do! yeah i think bodies of hours has to be a favorite for me today but not without competition
yes!!!
waiting for a random event that will not have been random once it has happened
and the poem ends in a similar way
Charlotte: And I love the way the walls behind the woman are described—it’s so visually dynamic, and the poem is so dynamic in its description. “how when spring came, / it was earned” is crazy
I think the painting poem might be mine—I just think it’s neat! Made me think about TWO kinds of art, which is always so fun
Micah: good choice
Charlotte: Yours, too! It’s so beautiful. And the close is just so perfect.
Micah: :D
Charlotte: Cool that “Bodies of Hours” is followed up by “Color Keeps Time,” too, especially considering the last line
Micah: ooh again with the titles
Charlotte: The titles are bangin in this section. I love the bleed from one poem to the next.
Micah: yes lots of broken (? not right word) thoughts and lots of questions
Charlotte: Hmmm
Yeah broken’s not quite right but not wrong, either—cut off? Aborted? Fragmented?
Micah: okay the poem that i thought i remembered and might have been the connection was not the connection. flipping through rest of leonard cohen 1956-68 in case it jumps out at me but it’s not looking optimistic
Charlotte: Ah frat
*drat lmao
Micah: i guess it feels like. not interrupted? obviously unfinished, and not deliberately unfinished, but not fighting?
Charlotte: Oh fighting, I like that
That feels right.
Micah: oh wait really i was thinking the opposite
hang on let me re-view
i guess to me it just feels like the poem decides when it ends and the writer doesn’t/can’t assert agency in that?
like she’s not opposing the poem ending suddenly because her opposition isn’t a variable in the poem’s sudden end
i might also be growing a bit delirious before bed
Charlotte: No I think I see that!! I think I was thinking of the poem “we” with your initial comments but I gotchu now
Micah: ohhhhh
yeah it’s a weird kind of fighting in that poem. directionless? but also knowing it’s purpose.
Charlotte: Exactly.
The multiplicity of language in that one was so cool. I really enjoyed it.
Micah: “to belong to: be longed for”
i love english
okay I have to go to bed i think but i see spiral shaped poem within tomorrow so i am very excited
Monday, May 5
Micah: “sometimes I fall in love with potential, turn myself into a bullseye” (71) is such an interesting metaphor
i also think the letter for sadia (74) is a distilled square of the entire collection so far
also “(I am reaching for / the part disappearing/behind the door facing the setting sun/in the hour between dog and wolf)” (76)
i am fascinated and a little confused by cape disappointment (65) but mostly appreciate its candid and harrowing and devoted natures
Charlotte: “I ask for icicles. As in, suspension—no, preservation” (64) is a line I’ve been puzzling over all day!
And YES to Cape Disappointment—so many of these poems are really directly tied to location and place, and this was VERY Pacific Northwest in a really neat way while still pulling us into this eerie haunted space
You are on the nose with “for Sadia,” too, I think!! We get the intimacy questions, the location questions, the water connections, devotion, language, harm—it definitely feels like an encapsulation. Not a thesis, exactly, but I think you’re spot on with distillation
Also, “touch is a pilgrimage you make inside yourself” goes crazy (72), as does the idea of a peaceful morning that “renders my sleeplessness embarrassing” (69). And the worst sensory line ever is “washing your hair with pine tar” (76) because I have gotten tar in my hair and that shit does NOT come out 😂
Micah: yes the icicles! that caught my eye when first reading too
i know it’s so cool how it can be really material and tied to reality and yet these other things surge along with it
speaking of tangible experience hahahaha
Charlotte: Totally. I think this section was very tactile, or at least had very tactile moments in it!
Micah: for sure
it just makes the whole thing more pungent
Charlotte: I think Cape Disappointment might be my fav poem of this section. I am, alas, a simple woman who loves spooky times in a creaky old lighthouse
Micah: oh i was thinking exactly the same
weird eternal connections and cliff
i also liked kissing like there’s no place else
Charlotte: I liked the brackets, too!!
Micah: that was my favorite line
Charlotte: Yes!! It was so cool!
And the melancholy of it was so beautiful.
Micah: yes absence in presence and presence in absence
Charlotte: Which, that does feel like an enormous theme in the whole collection, too. Not an exclusive theme by any stretch, but certainly one we keep returning to
Micah: omg sorry my roommate came home and i got distracted
yes! definitely another axis to the displacement
i didn’t realize there were notes in the back til now – must write a cradle-magnolia
Tuesday, May 6
Charlotte: Okay, thoughts for today! (Also I missed the cradle-magnolia text from yesterday somehow—YES you absolutely should write one, that’s completely rad.)
On Belonging is absolutely beautiful. It’s full of line after line after line of just complete masterpieces. “If I make of myself the mythical protagonist, / she must journey against fixed belonging” (81), “Sweater undone sounds softer / than I mean. Little skeleton, unremembering” (83), “There’s a ticking clock on self-deceit” (87). And UGH the final line??
Obviously there are fewer poems in this second to last section, esp since On Belonging is so long, but man does it make up for it.
Micah: i know!!!!!
i wasn’t expecting it and was wondering why the section was so “short” lol
i also like how the one after it is tiny compared, and cuts off
on belonging is so interesting because nothing happens, but it doesn’t feel stifled
like things happen but it’s not plot centric. and it’s cyclical but in a refreshing way
which i wonder at
could also be the “anchor” of the book, not sinking but all encompassing (but it doesn’t Feel all encompassing. i don’t know)
Charlotte: Definitely!!!! And I feel like it also touches on SO many of the things we’ve been chatting about—it just spills out and over.
Oh heck yeah, viewing it as an anchor is brilliant. It moors the book, in a lot of ways.
Or the themes, at least.
Micah: yes out and over
and so near the end too
i guess I might not have appreciated it as much if it was earlier
Charlotte: True!! I think tomorrow I’m going to try to reread the whole thing (and the last poem) but I think it works so well because we’ve been able to see what sorts of things she’s lingering on
Micah: great idea
Wednesday, May 7
Micah: okay i really loved this last poem and i think a letter is the only way to end anything.
Charlotte: It’s SO great. I think the perfect way to end this collection, too.
Charlotte: Also, I love that it is dedicated to “my beloveds” and closes with a direct address to “Beloved”
Micah: yes!!
Charlotte: So, thoughts on a reread (and we can do more back and forth tomorrow, as a lil wrap up before we send it off into the great wide world!) I LOVED the realization that the end of the book had line notes and reference clarifications—“Because Horse Is the Closest I Can Get to It” being from a Jack Gilbert poem, for example, which makes it even more special!
Also, as someone who is a huge nerd and loves seeing the way other people’s brains work, lil annotations at the end are such a neat way to clue the reader into a thought process without disrupting the body of work DURING the read, the way something like a footnote would.
Micah: i agree i definitely prefer endnotes/afterword to an introduction or footnotes
or i guess, introduction/footnotes in something like theory, but for literary stuff i definitely prefer to see all of the thoughts and facts once I’ve seen everything on the table
Charlotte: Totally.
It was cool going back and reading “Magnolia,” too, after the explanation of the form (how cool that it came from a dream!!). I even like the way it looked on the page.
Micah: right!
i also felt when i first read it like it was going to be about a person. obviously not, but with the dream/beloved/petals connection it seems more understandable
Charlotte: Definitely! And now the shape of it (literal and metaphorical) gains some structure in a really neat way
Micah: yes i love the form its my favorite thing
Charlotte: Did you have a favorite form poem in this collection? Magnolia or another?
Micah: oof good question
i think i would say magnolia just because of the novel style and beloved doesn’t count
or maybe it does (form- square)
you?
Charlotte: Hmmm
Initially I probably would have said “The Last Anchoress” because it suits both the shape and the content so well, but I’m kind of obsessed with the cradle-magnolia 😂
Micah: very understandable lol it can be both
Charlotte: I might crash in a second, but any other big thoughts regarding our last lil poem and the notes?
I found the last line so, so stunning and such a lovely way to resolve the collection. Endings are so heckin hard but this final poem feels like the perfect emotional in between from some of its more high octane moments and more subdued moments.
Thursday, May 8
Micah: so sorry i fell asleep lmao
i agree i just really like it
and it doesn’t feel like an ending is the other thing. the writer is asking for the beloved to send her things. its just a commonplace correspondence
which is cool because it maybe implies the significance of any small piece of correspondence
Charlotte: Oh that’s so true, I hadn’t even thought of that!!
Gosh this is just such a beautiful collection. I’m reading back through it and over my notes, and I think the breadth of themes but depth of feeling and emotion is so palpable.
Micah: right!
i definitely also appreciate that you can read through it like a book but also jump ridiculously around
and like all poems it just gets to know you better with time whether you try or not
Charlotte: Totally!!! And even as I skip around it now I just feel like it deepens. Reflecting off itself and revealing more of itself
Micah: yeah
contains landscapes
lol
Charlotte: Hahaha true!
It’s been so cool going through and retracing all the map imagery. I loved how much discussion on borders and geography and nature was wrapped up in conversations about identity and sexuality.
Micah: oh good phrasing i think that’s what stood out to me too
i feel like suuper often the “borders/geography” part and the “identity/sexuality” part aren’t tacked together super smoothly but here they’re indistinguishable
tacked together smoothly in writing* i mean. because obviously they are super connected in real life.
Charlotte: DEFINITELY. I think because so often they’re so bound up in real life that when people try to put words to that entanglement it doesn’t always do it justice. But it was so smooth and clear here that it felt seamless, which is REALLY hard to do
Micah: yeah exactly
we unconsciously separate them to function and then forget the same language can be used for both
Micah Gresl-Turner is living in northern Ohio and trying to read lots.
Charlotte Jones is a copy editor by day and a fiction writer by night. Originally from Bloomington, Indiana, she attended Colby College as an undergraduate and Emerson College to earn her master of fine arts. Now, she is a proud dog mom and successfully converted Boston driver. When not knitting, playing board games, or working frantically toward a deadline, she is probably listening to an uncouth audiobook.
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