On the Vanishing of Large Creatures

by Susan Hutton

As her title suggests, Susan Hutton’s poems are about vanishing―not disappearances, exactly, but the way anything can appear lost when it becomes something else. Moving deftly from Houdini to the backyard, from Euclid’s proofs to an inexplicable suicide, Hutton’s poems are about finding, collecting, and saving, are themselves dazzling little assemblages of the ordinary and the incredible, one inside the other. They are lovely, mysterious, and rewarding.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 2007

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first picked up this collection because the author is a graduate of UM's MFA program and resides in Ann Arbor. It soon became one of my favorites. Hutton's debut is filled with poems that draw from a broad intellectual tradition and yet are grounded in the personal details of daily life. Like any good book, it challenges me to be a better writer.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" comes to mind while reading the following attempt to imitate Hutton's style.

EVENT HORIZON

Schwarzschild’s solutions to Einstein’s equations showed
that some black holes were spinless, perfectly
spherical and, therefore, could be identical,
twins as long as their masses were equal.

Gastropods have no ears but most of them can at least
sense light and dark, can learn something about their world.

My mother discovered my chickenpox because
I whined, “There’s something in my eye” all day.

We sit on cool grass together knowing
she also will attend, but when we witness
her arrival, only sightlines adjust hyperbolically.
New postures but no motivation.

The yard’s northeast corner is exactly this lush. Their paper
plates and plastic cups teeter. They sit just as cross-legged—
just as long. Red wine, fruit, summer conversation. A decade?

Once we hadn’t met again, we must have said our goodbyes.
My blueprint for a lifetime of awkwardnesses at parties.
Greetings. Silence. Apologies.

[Ploughshares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan Hutton's On the Vanishing of Large Creatures won our eighteenth annual John C. Zacharis First Book Award. The award honors the best debut book by a Ploughshares writer, alternating between poetry and fiction.

You can read the full announcement here: http://www.pshares.org/issues/article...

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read as 4 1/2 stars)

Now this one *did* "hit" me. Much moreso than other books of poetry I have read recently.

There is a quiet mixture of desperation and hope in these delicious lines. To use a very overused adjective, I would say that the whole collection is haunting.

Absolutely fantastic poetry. Can't wait to read more from her.

[Sarah]

On the Vanishing of Large Creatures (Carnegie Mellon Poetry) by Susan Hutton (2007)