Nothing by Design

by Mary Jo Salter

A beautiful collection of verse––both light and dark, elegiac and affirmative––from one of our most admired poets.   The title Nothing by Design is taken from Salter’s villanelle “Complaint for Absolute Divorce,” in which we’re asked to entertain the thought of a no-fault universe. The wary search for peace, personal and public, is a constant theme in poems as varied as “Our Friends the Enemy,” about the Christmas football match between German and British soldiers in 1914; “The Afterlife,” in which Egyptian tomb figurines labor to serve the dead; and “Voice of America,” where Salter returns to the Saint Petersburg of her exiled friend, the late Joseph Brodsky. A section of charming light verse serves as counterpoint to another series entitled “Bed of Letters,” in which Salter addresses the end of a long marriage. Artfully designed, with a highly intentional music, these poems movingly give form to the often unfathomable, yet very real, presence of nothingness and loss in our lives.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Mary Jo Salter is an American poet, a co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry and a professor in the Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University.

Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was raised in Detroit and Baltimore, Maryland. She received her B.A. from Harvard University in 1976 and her M.A. from Cambridge University in 1978. In 1976, she participated in the Glascock Prize contest. While at Harvard, she studied with the noted poet Elizabeth Bishop.

From 1984 to 2007, she taught at Mount Holyoke College and was, from 1995 to 2007, a vice-president of the Poetry Society of America.

Salter has been an editor at the Atlantic Monthly and at The New Republic, and she is on the editorial board of the literary magazine The Common, based at Amherst College

Reviews

[Caitlin Vaille · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed "Cardinal Numbers", but all the other poems were just not for me.

[rabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

the cover art feels better than the poetry to me which is bothersome.

[Kelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was given to me by the goodreads giveaways.

To me, poetry is a reflection on life. Good poetry does not explain so much as imply. It is philosophical in nature. Mary Jo Salter's collection reads in this way. I especially enjoyed "Morning Mirror", "Constellation", "The Gods", and "Our Friends the Enemy." Other poems of note would include "Cities in the Sky", "Over and Out", and "Lost Originals". There is also an interesting portion of light verse thrown in for good measure.

However, among all of the outstanding passages there is a portion that can only be described as the blues. The book jacket explains that Salter wrote part of the collection after the end of a long marriage. At first I thought that the section was redundant and a little tiring, but as I read on I felt a genuine sadness for Salter. I cannot imagine how horrible it must have felt to experience such a rending. But, after reading this, I truly sympathize with her. Reading that portion you cannot help but be drawn in by her bare emotions. And a little bit of what I would think is anger, justifiable anger. Excluding the light verse, I consider most of the poems in this collection to be a little on the stark side. The "blues" section stands out even among the stark portions, both as a reflection on marriage and a lament for the betrayal involved with its end.

Philosophy and poetry seem to go hand in hand, and there is plenty of both in this collection. Enjoy.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I graciously received a copy of this book from Goodreads.

The two most striking features of this book are (1) the thematic coherence of the individual poems and (2) the way the poems take different forms and play with language in different ways. Some contemporary poetry is a cluster of images which makes reading confusing and feels more like a collage rather than a poem. Not Salter's. Her poems take ideas and turn them into poetry, or rather they are explored in linguistic ways that only an adept like Salter can navigate. Salter seems very in control of her poems from the beginning. Sometimes the end of the poem is a zinger or the culmination of the poem but I was impressed by the way they seemed to begin from the first line and then expand as opposed to culminating in something which changes the reading of the poem until the end.


My favorite section was the one which concerned (on my understanding) the aftermath of a relationship which ended due to the infidelity of the other partner. They were heartbreaking in the way she found the words to paint a scene of the things one not so attuned to humanity might miss. Another series seemed to concern the death or looming death of a loved one. These were similarly heartbreaking.

If you English poetry it is probable that you will like this. Which it is a recent book it is by no means limited to contemporary poetic trends.

[Salvatore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each poem knocked me over. It's as if Salter and elegy are one. Plus she's funny: 'Proust, Book One', a haiku: The elaborate / word ballet whereby Odette / turns into a Swann.' Pun! Sterling Archer might even like that. Above all, within this is a translated version of 'The Seafarer' - thus, Salter's a woman after my own heart.

[Kate]

"A female's born with all her eggs,
unfolds her legs,

then does her dance, is lovely, is the past--"

(From "String of Pearls")

(bleak tho, MJ)

[Rich Law]

Stand outs: over and out. The gazebo. Bed of letters.