Gertrude poems and other objects

by Toni Hanner

Poetry

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Philip Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have an odd relationship to Surrealism, which I fully realize is a paradox in itself. I love the surreal. And yet, I find myself often challenging Surrealism, as a judge of how bizarre an act of Surrealism is working in an effort to seek to, or actually manage to, subvert. Yet, when I am enjoying Surrealistic work (or practically any art) my tendency to form opinions of the work is the farthest from my mind. I'd say I reached that state when reading Toni Hanner's, Gertrude. You can see the work working, and yet, I could hear its music and was not distracted by its efforts. The physically denser poems – also with a different sense of pace and urgency – beginning with Carpentry and then picked up in the poems I'd called entries in a surrealist dictionary: A Row of Hats, An Invention, A Feather, A Building, A Supreme Being, etc., brought another layer to enjoyment and consideration in the collection. Toni promises in the back of the book that she has other work "that actually make sense". Well, these ones make perfect sense to me.