Jukebox

by Patty Seyburn

88 pages, Paperback

Published October 7, 2025

Reviews

[Max Lemuz · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "Jukebox," Seyburn offers us a harmonious and contemplative exploration of not just the music we listen to, but how music shapes who we are, how music is so deeply embedded in culture and faith, and how life itself is the jukebox that defines us. In one of her poems, she whispers to the reader that "few things scare [her] as much as the word 'soul," and I think that's because the soul for Seyburn is the music that the jukebox plays. It plays for not just us, but bears ourselves to anyone around to hear it. Playing the jukebox, like publishing poetry or any other performance art, is scary, but the thought of it ending is also scary. What really hit me hard was the shift in the collection from musicality and vibrance to this exploration of silence, of what happens when the jukebox stops playing and that juxtaposition made this collection so much more meaningful.

In this collection you're going to get a ton of musical references (I have to go listen to Coltrane now), but also references to the Ancient Greek and Jewish traditions. In one poem, she tells us about a Passover Seder in Spain and thereby asks us to consider the relationship between tradition and inquiry and how we are in this process of "remodeling" those traditions, their meanings, and our identities. My favorite poem though has to be "Wild One," which recounts a mosh pit fall at an Iggy Pop concert. It is so visceral and physical, but it has Seyburn questioning her identity in relation to the mythological figures of Eurydice and Persephone, and it just took me to a new place with new music. Her jukebox is nothing but hits.