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We Come Elemental
"In her lovely, complicated poems, Beyer . . . suggests that queerness isn’t relegated to gender or love but is part of the ebb and flow of everything." —Library Journal
�What is remarkable about We Come Elemental is that it effectively queers nature and body without explicitly doing so…. Gender, sexuality, and body coexist with the ever-changing tides, and desire is upheld as a pure form of (re)creation. Beyer has written a nuanced book that deserves a careful, joyous, and thoughtful read.” —Lambda Literary
Through "queer::eco::poetics," Tamiko Beyer leads readers to reconsider the true meaning and implications of nature and "natural" order. Reclaiming nature as queer, Beyer inspires us to discard gender dichotomies and uncover the intricate relationships between bodies both human and elemental through syntax as unpredictable as the natural world's movements.
From "Look Alive, Dark Side":
Beach walking we
who siphon the wet
step around dumb
lumps gleaming
in moonlight’s pull:
creatures the tide
abandons to the shore.
We are not at all like them.
Tamiko Beyer spent the first ten years of her life in Tokyo, Japan. She is the author of the chapbook bough breaks (Meritage Press). She received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and was awarded a Chancellor’s Fellowship. Beyer is a former Kundiman Fellow, a recipient of a grant from the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, and a contributing editor to Drunken Boat. She works as the advocacy writer at Corporate Accountability International.
�What is remarkable about We Come Elemental is that it effectively queers nature and body without explicitly doing so…. Gender, sexuality, and body coexist with the ever-changing tides, and desire is upheld as a pure form of (re)creation. Beyer has written a nuanced book that deserves a careful, joyous, and thoughtful read.” —Lambda Literary
Through "queer::eco::poetics," Tamiko Beyer leads readers to reconsider the true meaning and implications of nature and "natural" order. Reclaiming nature as queer, Beyer inspires us to discard gender dichotomies and uncover the intricate relationships between bodies both human and elemental through syntax as unpredictable as the natural world's movements.
From "Look Alive, Dark Side":
Beach walking we
who siphon the wet
step around dumb
lumps gleaming
in moonlight’s pull:
creatures the tide
abandons to the shore.
We are not at all like them.
Tamiko Beyer spent the first ten years of her life in Tokyo, Japan. She is the author of the chapbook bough breaks (Meritage Press). She received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and was awarded a Chancellor’s Fellowship. Beyer is a former Kundiman Fellow, a recipient of a grant from the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, and a contributing editor to Drunken Boat. She works as the advocacy writer at Corporate Accountability International.
104 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2013
4 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Tamiko Beyer
11 books24 followersTAMIKO BEYER IS THE AUTHOR OF THE AWARD-WINNING POETRY COLLECTION WE COME ELEMENTAL (ALICE JAMES BOOKS), AND CHAPBOOK BOUGH BREAKS (MERITAGE PRESS).
Her poetry has appeared in journals including The Volta, Tupelo Quarterly, and The Progressive and several anthologies. She is a founding member of Agent 409: a queer, multi-racial writing collective in New York City that performed across the east coast and led workshops at conferences such as the U.S. Social Forum and Split this Rock Poetry Festival.
She has received several fellowships and grants, including a Kundiman fellowship, a grant from the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, and an Olin and Chancellor’s Fellowships from Washington University in St. Louis. She was a longtime workshop leader for the New York Writers Coalition.
With a background in communications writing and grassroots organizing, Tamiko has worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the news program Democracy Now!, feminist film distributor Women Make Movies, and San Francisco Women Against Rape. Today, she is the Deputy Communications Director at Corporate Accountability International.
Raised in Tokyo, Japan, Tamiko has lived on both the East and West coasts. She received her B.A. from Fairhaven College at Western Washington University and her M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis. She lives in Boston in a former chocolate factory next to the Neponset River.
Her poetry has appeared in journals including The Volta, Tupelo Quarterly, and The Progressive and several anthologies. She is a founding member of Agent 409: a queer, multi-racial writing collective in New York City that performed across the east coast and led workshops at conferences such as the U.S. Social Forum and Split this Rock Poetry Festival.
She has received several fellowships and grants, including a Kundiman fellowship, a grant from the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, and an Olin and Chancellor’s Fellowships from Washington University in St. Louis. She was a longtime workshop leader for the New York Writers Coalition.
With a background in communications writing and grassroots organizing, Tamiko has worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the news program Democracy Now!, feminist film distributor Women Make Movies, and San Francisco Women Against Rape. Today, she is the Deputy Communications Director at Corporate Accountability International.
Raised in Tokyo, Japan, Tamiko has lived on both the East and West coasts. She received her B.A. from Fairhaven College at Western Washington University and her M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis. She lives in Boston in a former chocolate factory next to the Neponset River.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 25, 2013
My review in Hyphen magazine:
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/ar...
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/ar...
June 12, 2019
Nice collection, well themed so to speak, with a nice long poem for the center of the book.
'Trash Sail' made me smile, as did it's partner in form 'Where the Current Takes'
"the current leads out of the body--"
'Trash Sail' made me smile, as did it's partner in form 'Where the Current Takes'
"the current leads out of the body--"
February 3, 2020
Pretty good collection; I think these poems were risking quite a bit and ventured far off from the trodden path. I enjoyed their surprises and thought their twists had ramifications.
May 6, 2014
The central poem, "Dear Disappearing" reacts to an artwork titled "Another Place" by Antony Gormley. The artist placed a hundred cast iron statues of his own body at Crosby Beach in the UK where they stare out to sea and fade back into the elements. The poetry circles around this same metaphor, shifting between oceans and the body all spiraling in towards the garbage in the North Pacific Gyre:
trawling boats haul up netfuls
oceantrash translucent
every little piece of plastic manufactured
fifty years floating still
here: North Pacific Gyre
confetti-dense suspended vortex
invisible to satellites.
and my favorite lines,
I cannot stand an aquarium the lantern fish and squid give me the creeps the beluga swims
round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round
trawling boats haul up netfuls
oceantrash translucent
every little piece of plastic manufactured
fifty years floating still
here: North Pacific Gyre
confetti-dense suspended vortex
invisible to satellites.
and my favorite lines,
I cannot stand an aquarium the lantern fish and squid give me the creeps the beluga swims
round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round
September 19, 2019
I finished reading this today, at my last day at Alice James Books, which was incredibly sad for me to leave, but I’ve had an amazing semester there, and I’m so grateful I got the opportunity to be a part of that team, at least for a few months. WCE was a beautiful book, though, and one I was hard-pressed to put down. Each book this season at AJB has been so different from the one before it, and this was no exception. The summary says it all–it’s exquisite, truly, and it tells a fascinating story.
May 20, 2013
This is a lovely book of poems that explores the myriad ways that the natural world (the elements) impact, interact with, and compose the human body and human experience. Spare and sometimes a bit distant, these poems are tightly constructed, and range from more traditional lyrics to more experimental forms.
December 9, 2013
Startling, elegant, gorgeous and haunting work. Beyer's poems are formally innovative and effortlessly stitch together language from sources as varied as The Graduate and a scientific article on plastic to replicate the way the mind synthesizes information, experience, and emotion. I'll be rereading this very soon.
February 11, 2014
The first few poems I enjoyed and most of the final third. I prefer concrete poetry and when she did write somewhat on those terms it was lovely.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews