What do you think?
Rate this book
Study for Necessity
“Kwiatek’s poems emit the uncanny luminosities of the artists’ worlds they refer those of Caspar David Friedrich, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Odilon Redon. Each is a ‘token of strangeness’ built with delicacy and restraint, embodying, vivifying what the poet calls the mind’s ‘lonesome flourish.’ Like entries in a recondite log, or the etchings, or tracks, of a complex consciousness, this work cannot help but identify its own material and spiritual a bridle worn to threadbare, a voyage that ‘grows more & more captivating. More terse.’ It is, as one poem puts it, as if seeing / were a form of radiant / isolation . And yet the presence established over the course of the book is profoundly connective, rich with acute physical apprehension and charge. It moves under pressure toward its singular end, its very ‘necessity.’”―Emily Wilson, judge, 2014 Iowa Poetry Prize
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2015
1 person is currently reading
12 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 5, 2015
I have now read this collection twice as I did not feel ready to review it after one walk though these poems. I'm very glad for that decision as the imagery seemed to open up for me on this second pass. The natural world is paramount but it is presented obliquely or in new and what appear to be highly personal ways. The structure of the poems also contributes to meaning in the way pauses are built in, mid thought.
From Sea Below Rocks:
What does the sea see -- ? Something awful. It has
the roving
thwarted glance of a mare in blinders, something
awful facing her stall.
Petrified, swaybacked, the sea jerks on its tether but
remains facing the rocks--.....
From Low Tide:
Huge & close
the dark blue
sky hovers
like a gleaner's
back, inches from
the marsh....
From Another World:
The long adjournment to evening commences. The
long slow drink of detachment. It's summer, and
loss is sweet.
This collection is the winner of the 2014 Iowa Poetry Prize.
I have a strong feeling that each new reading will bring me a new layer of meaning from these poems.
Definitely recommended to poetry readers/lovers.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
From Sea Below Rocks:
What does the sea see -- ? Something awful. It has
the roving
thwarted glance of a mare in blinders, something
awful facing her stall.
Petrified, swaybacked, the sea jerks on its tether but
remains facing the rocks--.....
From Low Tide:
Huge & close
the dark blue
sky hovers
like a gleaner's
back, inches from
the marsh....
From Another World:
The long adjournment to evening commences. The
long slow drink of detachment. It's summer, and
loss is sweet.
This collection is the winner of the 2014 Iowa Poetry Prize.
I have a strong feeling that each new reading will bring me a new layer of meaning from these poems.
Definitely recommended to poetry readers/lovers.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
October 3, 2015
"A small tight rain
was falling, damp-
ening the tough grass where my astonishment lay."
Reading Study for Necessity by the 2014 Iowa Poetry Prize Winner Joellen Kwiatek was a treat. One I took in very slowly. Many of her poems are very short, reflections so full of unexpected connections and imagery it sometimes felt like seeing tiny hallucinations unfold on paper. And sometimes I wasn't to sure whether it was writer or reader hallucinating.
"They look out as if seeing
were a form of radiant
isolation, leafless
as the sea and
like the sea, a fisher of men"
Her poems hold the invitation to be read several times. Her usage of language and the way she breaks her lines allow for so many different images to unfold and make her poetry incredible dense and utterly beautiful.
Highly recommended.
was falling, damp-
ening the tough grass where my astonishment lay."
Reading Study for Necessity by the 2014 Iowa Poetry Prize Winner Joellen Kwiatek was a treat. One I took in very slowly. Many of her poems are very short, reflections so full of unexpected connections and imagery it sometimes felt like seeing tiny hallucinations unfold on paper. And sometimes I wasn't to sure whether it was writer or reader hallucinating.
"They look out as if seeing
were a form of radiant
isolation, leafless
as the sea and
like the sea, a fisher of men"
Her poems hold the invitation to be read several times. Her usage of language and the way she breaks her lines allow for so many different images to unfold and make her poetry incredible dense and utterly beautiful.
Highly recommended.
November 22, 2015
Disclaimer: I was given a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was a really good poetry collection. A must-have for my poetry shelf. :D This was a great palate cleanser for the crap I've been reading lately.
This was a really good poetry collection. A must-have for my poetry shelf. :D This was a great palate cleanser for the crap I've been reading lately.
November 4, 2015
I delved into this poetry collection without knowing anything about it and having never read anything by its author. The beautiful cover captivated me from the outset and the title immediately made something inside me click into place. What made me give this book 5 stars, though, was the innovative and utterly mesmerising way those poems blew me away.
Kwiatek's poetry is very hard to describe. The images that each and every one of her poems evoked were enchanting and powerful. I admired her use of diction and the clever way she toyed with her stanzas and the position of each word, which was really thought out. Kwiatek won the Iowa Poetry Prize in 2014 and 'Study for Necessity' clearly indicates why. I will definitely come back to this collection soon, since I feel that there are still many things to be discovered in her poems upon a second reading. Simply a marvelous little book.
A copy was very kindly provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley.
Kwiatek's poetry is very hard to describe. The images that each and every one of her poems evoked were enchanting and powerful. I admired her use of diction and the clever way she toyed with her stanzas and the position of each word, which was really thought out. Kwiatek won the Iowa Poetry Prize in 2014 and 'Study for Necessity' clearly indicates why. I will definitely come back to this collection soon, since I feel that there are still many things to be discovered in her poems upon a second reading. Simply a marvelous little book.
A copy was very kindly provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley.
October 8, 2020
Study for Necessity by Joellen Kwiatek is her second published collection of poetry. Kwiatek is a professor in the English department at SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY. She is the winner of the 2014 Iowa Poetry Prize.
I look forward every year to the reading the collection that won the Iowa Poetry Prize. I see it as the high water mark for the year in poetry. The collections are always excellent or, as last year's choice, very challenging. My background is not in poetry or even literature, but I do appreciate good poetry. My review is not going to be as flowery or as educated as the judges views for this collection, but rather as seen from an educated outsider.
A poet's work is one of those things you know you are going to like or dislike very early on in the reading. I knew I was going to like Kwiatek from the opening lines of her first poem "Sea Below Rocks."
What does the sea see--? Something awful. It has the roving
thwarted glance of a mare in blinders, something awful facing her stall.
I immediately caught the obvious sea and see and then found glance (see) and mare (Latin for sea). I knew then, intentional or not, this was going to be a great collection. Throughout the collection phrases seemed to leap out at me "a stone calved from the underworld" and the "radium of twilight." The word usage and imagery is outstanding. Line breaks create different meanings A horse that ran out into the field is "Home" but the next line begins "less." There are several creative breaks in the line structure that take the meaning in different directions.
Poetry is difficult for an outsider to review. Bad or mediocre poetry is easy to pick apart and leads to longer reviews exposing poets trying too hard or even "cutesy" themes. Good and great poetry collections tend to get short reviews from me. They say everything they need to say, and say it so it clicks in my mind as "Exactly!" Although I understand clearly what is being said, I have difficulty repeating it in my own words. It seems that the poet delivers something so perfect, I don't have the words to describe it myself. That is what I believe the essence of poetry is and this collection is one of those cases. Outstanding.
I look forward every year to the reading the collection that won the Iowa Poetry Prize. I see it as the high water mark for the year in poetry. The collections are always excellent or, as last year's choice, very challenging. My background is not in poetry or even literature, but I do appreciate good poetry. My review is not going to be as flowery or as educated as the judges views for this collection, but rather as seen from an educated outsider.
A poet's work is one of those things you know you are going to like or dislike very early on in the reading. I knew I was going to like Kwiatek from the opening lines of her first poem "Sea Below Rocks."
What does the sea see--? Something awful. It has the roving
thwarted glance of a mare in blinders, something awful facing her stall.
I immediately caught the obvious sea and see and then found glance (see) and mare (Latin for sea). I knew then, intentional or not, this was going to be a great collection. Throughout the collection phrases seemed to leap out at me "a stone calved from the underworld" and the "radium of twilight." The word usage and imagery is outstanding. Line breaks create different meanings A horse that ran out into the field is "Home" but the next line begins "less." There are several creative breaks in the line structure that take the meaning in different directions.
Poetry is difficult for an outsider to review. Bad or mediocre poetry is easy to pick apart and leads to longer reviews exposing poets trying too hard or even "cutesy" themes. Good and great poetry collections tend to get short reviews from me. They say everything they need to say, and say it so it clicks in my mind as "Exactly!" Although I understand clearly what is being said, I have difficulty repeating it in my own words. It seems that the poet delivers something so perfect, I don't have the words to describe it myself. That is what I believe the essence of poetry is and this collection is one of those cases. Outstanding.
October 23, 2018
Maybe it was the timing. Kwiatek is a serious poet and I'm a reader of serious poetry, so I was looking forward to reading this book. But none of the poems in this award-winning collection caught me--by the heart, head, or ear. I would enter into each of these brief poems hopefully, but the poem was over before I felt I'd fully inhabited the poem's world. I can tell these poems must be deeply meaningful for the poet, but they do little to orient or communicate to a reader. I want poems that move or delight, that astonish with their verbal alacrity or at least communicate simply and honestly. In the dark times in which we dwell,"uncanny luminosity" doesn't feel like enough for me.
July 3, 2015
The poems in this collection are both responses in the ongoing discussion poems (rather than necessarily poets) throughout history have with each other and wonderful standalone visions for those of us not privy to some of the conversations.
Like any good poetry these poems reward repeated readings and especially reward selected close reading and contemplation. The language, the words and how they are arranged, permit and even demand rereading with modified nuance. These are not just interesting as visions but can, for those so inclined, serve as touchstones for excursions beyond the poems.
I found myself, perhaps on a fourth or fifth reading of a poem, making little side trips every couple of lines, letting the words take me to a point, then letting my mind lead me a bit, then back to the written words, and so on. These moments allowed me to learn a little more about myself and my world while also raising more questions for my next trip with that particular poem.
I definitely recommend this collection to poetry lovers and I would suggest that this might also be a very good book for writers of any kind simply to appreciate and observe the different ways words can be used to paint a picture.
Reviewed from an ARC made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
Like any good poetry these poems reward repeated readings and especially reward selected close reading and contemplation. The language, the words and how they are arranged, permit and even demand rereading with modified nuance. These are not just interesting as visions but can, for those so inclined, serve as touchstones for excursions beyond the poems.
I found myself, perhaps on a fourth or fifth reading of a poem, making little side trips every couple of lines, letting the words take me to a point, then letting my mind lead me a bit, then back to the written words, and so on. These moments allowed me to learn a little more about myself and my world while also raising more questions for my next trip with that particular poem.
I definitely recommend this collection to poetry lovers and I would suggest that this might also be a very good book for writers of any kind simply to appreciate and observe the different ways words can be used to paint a picture.
Reviewed from an ARC made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
July 7, 2015
Poetry is an intensely subjective and personal thing in my opinion and sometimes it resonates and sometimes it doesn’t. I really enjoyed this collection from Ms Kwiatek. There is some profound imagery in these poems and the language is truly beautiful. It is a book to read slowly and almost to allow yourself to meditate on some of the poems and images.
A few selections to give a flavour: -
“the tiny, explosively deserted instant of before;”
“coddled by smithereens of brightness.”
“The cold was heavier than a major appliance; I was soldered to it.”
Having once spent a winter of minus temperatures in a caravan, I can picture the last quote very clearly in my mind’s eye!
I read this book several times, having highlighted a few favourites and I will return to it again and again. I think some of the images will also spark my own writing and that is my definition of successful poetry. If Ms Kwiatek sees this, maybe I can see that – but “What does the sea see?”
Recommended if you like tight imagery and meditative poems. Treat yourself to the paper book as I think this deserves better than the kindle. Some poetry just needs to be held and savoured in the proper medium…
I was given a free copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.
March 4, 2015
This is a really beautiful collection of poetry. I loved how water- be it the sea, a lake, the rain, a swamp, etc. shows up throughout the collection. It has a calming effect. A couple of examples:
"A small tight rain was falling, dampening the tough grass where my astonishment lay."
"Crossing the hacked up sea of snow, the moon waist-high, lunging and capitulating, addressed by resources that make no sound."
"A small tight rain was falling, dampening the tough grass where my astonishment lay."
"Crossing the hacked up sea of snow, the moon waist-high, lunging and capitulating, addressed by resources that make no sound."
July 27, 2015
Deft and inventive word choice, packed with meaning. Another lovely collection.
January 15, 2016
"I took no for an answer [...] more wood for the stove [...] until the fire grew like a tree in Paradise."
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews