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Beyond the Chainlink
Poetry. Morrison "Beyond the chainlink, a city is the union between two lovers, never taking place." In this latest collection, her eye is attuned to the ways language both obscures and exposes the seemingly lucid illusions of intimate attraction. How to recognize the past's specters as they beckon and frighten, haunt and call, from just outside the "chainlink" of one's schoolyard expectations of self and other? Though Morrison may assert how impossible it is to escape the constructed frame of past experience, her gift for nuance makes each achingly exposed limitation permeable to our attention. She reports, "Impulse says a little hurt is worth the long, thin fracturing you can use as horizon."
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 18, 2014
I am a huge fan not only of Rusty’s poems, but also of her work founding and running Omnidawn. She’s a real literary ambassador and we are so lucky to have such a dedicated leader in poetry. I was very excited to read this new book and it did not disappoint. What I love about reading Rusty’s poems is that with each turn of the page I’m delighted by a surprise--an image attached to a new way to view a space or relationship or fact. I keep getting brain-stretched. How does she do that? I want to too. At times it’s like reading a book of aphorisms. I have to stop and repeat lines to fully savor them.
Some of my favorite moments:
“How a second emptiness
un-punctuates the first.”
“The spine of our backyard
appears to have always been crooked.”
“Strategy: What you can’t pass through--
let it pass through you.”
“Sun in its cloud hat.”
“Every loss
is my accomplice.”
“Sun on the cutlery offers an ageless sheen.”
“nostalgia, which remembers nothing and calls it beautiful”
“Listening has everything to do with location.”
“This mistake will not be made
the same way twice.”
“Our poor collaboration with language
otherwise known as eternity.”
“Two yellow chairs turn the wall a blue
that wouldn’t exist without them.”
“No help from explanation, which always behaves badly.”
Some of my favorite moments:
“How a second emptiness
un-punctuates the first.”
“The spine of our backyard
appears to have always been crooked.”
“Strategy: What you can’t pass through--
let it pass through you.”
“Sun in its cloud hat.”
“Every loss
is my accomplice.”
“Sun on the cutlery offers an ageless sheen.”
“nostalgia, which remembers nothing and calls it beautiful”
“Listening has everything to do with location.”
“This mistake will not be made
the same way twice.”
“Our poor collaboration with language
otherwise known as eternity.”
“Two yellow chairs turn the wall a blue
that wouldn’t exist without them.”
“No help from explanation, which always behaves badly.”
February 20, 2015
A beautiful book of poetry that examines language and the self. I love some of the wordplay and imagery in this book, but I kept feeling like the poet was holding something back, something personal, that really kept me from connecting to the poetry or the poet. Still, some beautiful writing and imagery that haunts long after the book is put down.
April 23, 2024
[rating = B]
Morrison's previous collection ("THE TRUE KEEPS CALM BIDING ITS STORY") really inspired some of my own poetry. Her way of using odd syntax and sentence structures is truly unique. This collection is not as cohesive, but it does have some fantastic poems...and also some very confusing ones.
The collection is made up of sequences like "Necessities," "Sensework," "Backward Rowing," and "Inventions." The best poems came out of the "Sensework" sections and the worst (well, the most puzzling) from the "Backward Rowing" ones. Morrison is great when she is at her best, mixing the physical, the emotional, and the reflective. And within each poem, there is always some line, some phrase that beautifully sticks out, that is remembered and pondered on afterward.
Morrison's previous collection ("THE TRUE KEEPS CALM BIDING ITS STORY") really inspired some of my own poetry. Her way of using odd syntax and sentence structures is truly unique. This collection is not as cohesive, but it does have some fantastic poems...and also some very confusing ones.
The collection is made up of sequences like "Necessities," "Sensework," "Backward Rowing," and "Inventions." The best poems came out of the "Sensework" sections and the worst (well, the most puzzling) from the "Backward Rowing" ones. Morrison is great when she is at her best, mixing the physical, the emotional, and the reflective. And within each poem, there is always some line, some phrase that beautifully sticks out, that is remembered and pondered on afterward.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews