Trembling / Singing

by Jen Hadfield

Paperback

Reviews

[Juliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Can’t you see that it’s breathing, trembling?” I needed a change of pace from some of the longer and/or heavier books I’d been reading lately, especially during a few busy days, and this series of poetry pamphlets by Guillemot Press, part of their ‘Offcuts’ series, seemed the perfect antidote to both issues; starting with Jen Hadfield’s Trembling / Singing confirmed my suspicions! I’ve been a fan of Hadfield’s work since reading her new poetry collection The Stone Age earlier this year, a gorgeous, timely reflection on landscape + atmosphere, nature, breath. The two texts comprising this pamphlet, themselves derived from a trilogy of previously published pieces, felt at once so removed from The Stone Age, its stark world and style, and yet also clearly borne of some of the same moods and impulses. ‘Singing’, a kind of essay on cultural preservation, opens the pamphlet, musing on the significance of conjuring through language, specifically as a means of revival in the wake of annihilation, of the suppression that comes with destruction. Hadfield writes: “According to Nahua belief, to paint the image of a creature or god was to bring it into being.” Her capacity for cadence evokes her collection: “Gods trembling, gods very, gods deeply and thousands lovely, gods stirring and gourd-green, gods restless and gourd-blue, spooning with the sea, giving the waves their restless smell.” Finally, the closing poem, ‘Trembling’, meditates quietly on rain.