Host

by Lisa Fay Coutley

In raw, lyrical poems, Host explores parasitic relationships—between men and women, sons and mothers, and humans and the Earth—and considers their consequences. Throughout this collection, flukes abound, both chance occurrences and flatworms changing their hosts’ behavior. How much control do we have over our lives? To what extent are we being controlled? And how much does it matter in the end?

Revealing the unvarnished pain of mistreatment—whether inflicted maliciously or accidentally—Lisa Fay Coutley examines legacies of abuse in poems that explore how trauma parasitizes bodies, infecting the text, repeating in language and image the injuries the body has been subjected to. How can people heal from intergenerational trauma—and how can humans mend themselves when they live on a planet they abuse daily? 
 
                Ask me why

light can pour warm through a cold bay
window while water under sun is dark
as a closed door. A man’s hand

    erases a girl’s thigh. The trees start starving
        themselves into everyone’s favorite color.
            Her darkest room digs itself

    below her throne. The body knows no 
wrong move. The more love, the more.
—Excerpt from “Oubliette”

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Published March 12, 2024

Reviews

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection packs a lot of punches, leaving readers feeling brutalized, as they should be. The violence we heap on ourselves and each other, not to mention the Earth and Her creatures, is unconscionable. Yet somebody has to give voice to our planet’s unheeded cries and our own silent screams until each of us finally has the guts to declare enough is enough. Perhaps that will take a few more left hooks and right crosses by poets like Coutley. “Sheltering in Place” is a knockout.

Favorite Poems:
“Independence Day”
“What of the Mother”
“Parasitism for Dummies”
“Letter to the Aftermath”
“September 1, 2019”
“Dear First Love—“
“Reversion”
“If You Just Remember the Good Times”
“Love Apology”
“The Trying”
“Sheltering in Place”
“Why to Feel the Host”

[Anna Leahy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa Fay Coutley is on a roll. In addition to Host, she’s edited an anthology of poems with micro-essays called In the Tempered Dark. Host is a tour de force with a bold voice and forms that meet each poem’s subject. It’s about women, sons, nature, violence, bodies feeding on each other. It’s also kind of two collections in one, two halves talking to each other.

[Mary Schreiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word describes Lisa Fay Coutley’s HOST: Powerful. It is so powerful that, at times, I was tempted to turn away, to set the book down for a minute to reflect, regroup, and compose myself, but Coutley’s honesty pulled me in, forced me to keep reading.

These poems wade through the sludge of personal trauma, our current toxic politics, and the potential environmental dystopia we are creating for future generations. "Why to Feel the Host" is a must read for every human on this planet. It describes concerns that, until now, I was unable to give words to.

In another, untitled poem, Coutley asks, “What if we could agree Earth is not just / round but she knows more than us & so / knows the song you sing in the shower, …” Coutley concludes this poem with a subtle, yet powerful message: “Would you change your life if you knew / corn growing sounds like a limb slipping / through a sleeve? …” These poems do not only describe changes. They also invite us to reflect upon ourselves, our families, and our world.

[Taylor Franson-Thiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 3.5 rounded up. And I believe I would have better received this collection had so many of the pieces not been covid oriented.

This collection pulls no punches. The highs were very high while the lows felt pretty low. I appreciated this authors eco-feminist approach to their imagery and the honest reckoning with the way human bodies (female bodies in particular) are host to myriad traumas. This collection grapples with how we deal with the things we have to hold, and the things we have forced this planet to hold.

A fascinating collection I will revisit in the future when I am more interested in reading contemporaneous poetry to our current political climate. I have a feeling this poems with age with grace and poignancy.

[Christen Kauffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of poems is so pointent and powerful. There were so many haunting images and lines that I know I'll be thinking about for a long time. I'm a huge fan of the previous books from this brilliant poet and this collection lived up to everything I've come to love about Coutley's work. Books like this are so important, amplifying the voices we need to hear, especially regarding themes of the current political climate, childhood violence, mothers and sons, and how we turn that violence on the natural world as well as each other.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection as a whole just wasn’t for me, there were a few poems I connected with and enjoyed, the rest just didn’t work for me. I would still recommend this collection to those who find the premise intriguing

[Jules · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me awhile to get through this poetry compilation by a UNO professor. Not quite my cup of tea.