Cutting Room

by Sarah Pinder

"Cutting Room" both describes and pushes against the anxious hum of the technologically saturated present. Sarah Pinder's poems navigate domestic and "natural" spaces as landscapes charged with possible violence and desire while they scan scenes as an outsider or camera eye to unsettle and fray familiar settings. Using hyper-focus and the long gaze, they draw the eye to the corners and seams of these spaces, slowing us down, shifting our focus to worn detail, asking us to seek pattern and possibility in a hyper-paced present tense. These are little ominous films, documenting the minutiae around us that can be our undoing."Let their ribs stretch out - there is no figurewhich is not also a ground in""its arctic plane. Cutting rooms as luckwould have it have academic sincerity."Sarah Pinder was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and lives in Toronto, Ontario. This is her first collection.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 20, 2012

About the author

Sarah Pinder is the author of Cutting Room (Coach House Books, 2012) and Common Place (Coach House Books, 2017). Her writing has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Awards and included in magazines like Geist, Arc and Poetry is Dead. She lives in Toronto, Canada.

Reviews

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

every thing is robust, these leaves,
white socks now falling forward in columns,

loops machinating over the field.
girls in knee-high clouds, ringlets,

girls like scattered improbable shrapnel,
dispensing towards the future in pairs and packs,
cutlasses drawn.

- The Future, after Henry Darger, pg. 19

* * *

Let their ribs stretch out - there is no figure
that is not also a ground in

its arctic plane. Cutting rooms, as luck
would have it, have academic sincerity.

Sincerities, the lit business of eyes,
having not used praise

for days, each snug category asleep, its own
Bermuda, a dream-walled theatre.

- Test Reel, pg. 39

* * *

Time-lapsed smoke coiled back
towards your pursed oh
channels silence.

I am bound to the balcony; a door
in the sidewalk heaves open, pigeons lifting,
the day on its ear already

over the good bread, plateful of seeds
to slick my thumb through.
Please, give me any ending but drift,
away on my bicycle, singing,
obscenity dry.

So much happens in small boxes,
the hole in the roof must travel far for the light
and my eyes are common stones,
my mouth a torn circular, my hair
severed, left to the grass,
blown up in little hash marks.

Now there is nothing but counting,
logic moving heavy
alongside my body as it leaves
itself, leaves the street,
runs red.

- Making Decisions to Proceed, after Alice Oswald, pg. 49

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book essentially feels like a wandering collection of images somewhat obscured by the perspective of the seer. some of these images landed in a way i could see & feel; many really escaped me & i found myself checking out midway through, lost. reading the credits at the end, i wonder if some of this may have been a certain lack of clarity on the relationship between seer & seen, as in the pieces dealing with us prisons (not that i know sarah pinder’s position in relation to them at all).

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Take - make - time to read this book, and don't skim the poems because these are not poems to be read quickly. Make sure you can think about each word, and try to piece together the abstract art that is being created. Sarah doesn't give it to you easily - you have to work for the rewards here - and these poems are wrist-deep in guts and grey mornings, bruises and bad meat.

[Allison]

The most charming metaphors of online ghosts, marshmallow hearts... and what isn't there to adore of the soft & subtle allusions to an encounter in a love hotel? (A brilliant contrast to explicit-spaces that so often are explicitly spoken about) To say the least, Pinder delivers a delightful collection of collage. Many amusing punchlines, and oh yes, the paper it's printed on is excellent.

[Guin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have kept this book beside my bed for several months now, I usually read it in small segments before I go to sleep. With few words Sarah conjures rich scenes and images that I can sink into and enjoy in that time between wakefulness and rest. This is a book that very much sustains multiple readings and has rewarded me every time I have returned to it.

[Becky]

I don't really feel qualified to rate books of poetry (or books by friends), but Sarah's book is a lovely thing...tiny clips of life that appeared to me so vividly they almost felt self-generated...

[Kate Mildew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful! Read it over and over!