Correspondence

by Kathleen Graber

"Correspondence," writes Mark Doty, "is a fresh accomplishment, swift with feeling and intelligence, the work of a restless critical mind mapping its way toward a way to bear the weight of love." Kathleen Graber's debut book takes us on a trip through history and time, varying her subjects with speed and seamlessness, to a dizzying, dazzling effect. From the Philadelphia Eagles to Cornell's boxes, from a fertility clinic to Daguerre's prints, from Kafka to running over two cats, from Annette Benning to Marianne Moore, Kathleen Graber's poems embrace what her inquisitive mind traverses, ensnaring past and present, familiar and foreign, soulful and scientific, in a celebration of chaos that is generous and healing."

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

Reviews

[Craig Morgan Teicher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did anyone see her poems in a recent APR? This book is so surprising and subtle and so fucking good. A poet writing in response to reading and seeing, quietly thinking in long lines and soft sentences.

[Janée Baugher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely influenced by "Letters to an Imaginary Friend" by Thomas McGrath--long lines, diatribes, many points-of-view, etc. Highly referential: Greek religion, philosophy, the personal. Is this the new direction that verse in this country is taking? A seemingly ambitious work. If you're a student of poetry, this collection is worth reading/studying.

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read: July 2, 2019, Tuesday

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book I have read by this poet in just over a month and I only wish that there were more in print that I could devour. This volume has left me hungry.

As I was reading this collection, feeling overwhelmed by it, I was asking myself why I was so stunningly in love with this poet. Then I came upon a poem ( The Letters: A Mnemonic For Forgetting/ E is for Elegies, or Enough to be Counted) that began with a fantastic Larry Levis quote that I had never read before.

(Let me say here that I was given my first textual tattoo two days before finishing this book and the quote was a Levis line that I had chosen years before. So to say I am enamored with Larry Levis is a tremendous understatement.)

The poem goes on, though, almost in Levis' voice. And, honestly, just as well written, just as powerful as most of his work. The hope and hopelessness entwine - inseperable, just as he knew them to be. Now, I am in no way saying that Graber is a pale imitation of Larry Levis or that she does not have a strikingly singular voice of her own. Quite the opposite, really. She is the first poet in a long time that has challenged and excited me as much as he did when I was first introduced to his work.

Through her words, I am undone. I am in love and envy. My intellect and my emotion are sparked in equal measure and I can count on one hand the poets who have consistently managed this for me. There just isn't enough praise that I could muster for the vast talent of this poet. I am enamored and I imagine that I will remain so for quite some time.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graber's use of association to move through a poem greatly interests me. In "Mysterium Cosmographicum," for example, she moves from an overcrowded museum on a holiday to facts about hummingbirtds to her "aunt's tiny kitchen," to Kepler's solar system, back to hummingbirds, to Einstein saying "Either nothing is a miracle or everything is," to Robert Moore's collection of specimens, back to childhoood, back to Kepler, back to Einstein, etc. Interesting weaving together that works for the most part. I'm not a fan when her language gets "poem-y": "We go wrong mostly// by insisting the world is rimmed with un-erasable truths," "the width of memory," "an extravagance of shadow// & light," etc. I am a fan of her use of letters (and other texts) in some poems, from Larry Levis, Nellie Sachs & Paul Celan, for example, but mostly because I have a fascination with correspondence--why I got the book in the first place.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow. Hauntingly beautiful writing, Classical references, a real sense of the complexity of memory and emotions.

[Carolina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a remarkable poet; very intellectual and quite dense - sometimes hard to get through with the many references in each of her long poems. But altogether admirable work, underlying wisdom.