Eggtooth

by Jesse Nathan

In this debut collection, Jesse Nathan matches an exquisite feeling for the music of lines and sentences with his profound explorations of the idea of home. The book's title comes from the word for a bit of cartilage on a baby bird's beak, a growth that helps it break out of the egg. Shortly after the bird hatches, the tooth disappears. Like an eggtooth, Nathan's poems are often figures for birth, for the violence of birth and, in his case, rebirth. They follow an unusual and passionate boy from his childhood on a wheat farm in the watershed of the Running Turkey Creek in rural southcentral Kansas ― "the land was always the solace" ― to his life years later in a coastal city. Ecology, family, history, sexuality, and poetry itself are his subjects, but in all these matters, Nathan's rich formal imagination travels our fundamental feelings of alienation and belonging. In a style somehow both lavish and plainspoken, in free verse and inherited forms, Eggtooth takes us from straw-bale fortresses in the hayloft, from fishing in streams and days so hot the "blank road shimmers" as the heat drives you out of your "straw-frail" mind, to the respite and loneliness of a far-off city plaza, to the "waves in their folding" at the edge where an ocean comes "boiling" onto sand. With verbal precision and abiding sympathy, Nathan's poems announce a capacious and deeply compelling new voice in American letters.

Genres: Poetry, Nature

136 pages, Hardcover

Published September 5, 2023

Reviews

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot to admire in the ambition and concept behind this book, which I would say centers around what's meant by "the land" in the United States. Like there's a way you grow up in rural America, and you feel yourself tied to the land. You belong to the land, and the land belongs to you. And it's easy to get tied up into that mindset. And it's hard to reconcile that with the knowledge of American history. The land that you've spent your childhood hearing is yours was gained through treachery and deceit. There's a problem with that.

And in Nathan's book, the poems drive into this paradox. Interested. Exploratory. And with a realistic view of the past as framed by his experience versus the past that exists in history. What I struggle with in my reading is how much the poems rely on nostalgia to communicate this tie to the land. And, again, conceptually, it's the right choice for the book. How else to communicate that very human sense of ownership. It assuredly problematizes the paradox. It just pushes too hard into it. Like the poems become too much about that nostalgic note rather than that underlying contradiction the book is interested in. It's how I feel about Brenda Shaughnessy's So Much Synth. Nostalgia is such a strong ingredient; it has an amplified tone. And, in Nathan's case, there are so many other ways to undercut that nostalgia.

But the other challenge is writing about American history as a white man. It's hard to do. Matthew Dickman's Wonderland: Poems tried. And it, like Nathan's book, is still not accounting for the underlying privilege white men have historically had. I wish I knew how to write about this that could engage this topic. However, I am also wary of what happens when nostalgia comes into the picture. It starts presenting like an excuse. Or it's asking the reader to concede, "Oh, this man was just living his childhood."

For sure, Nathan's book is so much more involved than that. And it's the ambition to address this historical wrong that I am most enthralled by.

[Skylar Miklus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy wow, these poems are impressive, so dense that I could spend hours unpacking each one. Jesse Nathan's winding syntax forces you to hunt for the meaning in each sentence. He often utilizes specialized vocabulary from his Mennonite background and farm upbringing, and I get the sense he is keenly aware of the connotations of every word he lays on the page. A deceptive little nesting doll of a book-- so much more than a work of pastoral poetry, this collection explores sexuality, religion, displacement, history, ecology. The sections are so intentionally laid out and I really enjoyed seeing the latticework of connections emerging between poems. The more I think about this book the more I like it. Challenging, but you'll be made better by the challenge.

[Wyatt strawbridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

great poetry. I heard Jesse Nathan do a reading of some of the poems from this book at college today, and then got his book, and, as I am eating my last Cheese & Cheddar Sandwich Cracker, finished it too. As I said, great poetry. I especially appreciated the lyricism which I don't find as much in contemporary poetry but like to read and hear aloud a lot, sometimes it feels like people forget that they are supposed to say poetry aloud. Further, I really appreciated the willingness it seemed Nathan had to write vulgarly and about what is vulgar or harsh. He doesn't swear to rhyme or just because, but he still does, and it means it matters when written. great.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I’ve said before, I’m no expert connoisseur of poetry. But this completely knocked me out. Well done, Jesse.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry

[atito · Rating 4 out of 5]

the ear! unmatched i have to say & has such berkeley specificities . but also some poems i did cd not feel as captivated by

[Adam Sarlan · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book about connecting urban society with the natural world.