Plenty

by Corinne Lee

Using Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass as a springboard, Corinne Lee’s second book of poetry is an eco-epic that investigates and embodies the deterioration of America’s environment due to industrial agriculture, fossil fuels, war, racism, and technology. Lee’s book-length work draws upon a variety of poetic forms and histories—especially events in 1892, which included  a surge in lynching in America and the beginning of our coup d’état of Hawaii—to examine how modern technology facilitated the Holocaust, sustains America’s racist prison industrial complex, fuels climate change, and ultimately underlies what has been called the Sixth Extinction. A daring and dazzling narrative of great originality, Plenty advocates a feminist ecobuddhist only by dismantling false hierarchies, especially those of patriarchal capitalism, are we able to recognize that all agents of environmental collapse are one with us.

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 2016

Reviews

[Margaryta · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Plenty" will leave you unhappy with the world and most likely, with yourself. And that's perfectly fine. A healthy dose of pessimism is, well, healthy. It can be motivating and thought provoking, which is what I think Lee has successfully done in this collection. "Plenty" reads like a whirlwind. It's hard to stop reading it at any point, because you're ripping yourself out of the flow created by the words, and getting back into it is always a bit difficult. Mishmashes usually don't work for me, but this was a rare exception - I could track the logical jumps and shifts, and if you sit there and either read the whole book cover to cover, or at least each of the sections in one sitting, then that is the most beneficial for the best possible effect. The "Origins" and "Preface", in which Lee gives background on glass and wheat production in America as well as talks about the references she used, may displease some people who don't like to have their references explained for them. And while there is some truth to that, I didn't mind having the poet talk to me about their thought process and research this time around - I felt like I had learned something, and gained a greater appreciation for the poetry. My only qualm was some scattered passages here and there where Lee talked about African American women, if I understood her correctly, passages that I thought had a bit of an uncomfortable tone, although whether that was intended in the grander scheme of pessimism of the overall work I cannot say. Overall, "Plenty" left me thinking and analyzing. It was simultaneously quick and slow, light and heavy. It was something I personally needed to read and hear, to at least know that my suspicions and my anger is shared by someone else out there.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

New title for this collection: Everything Is Terrible And It's All Your Fault. This poem is trying to do too much. It's an absurd mish-mash of buzzwords and zeitgeist and references—many tipped off in the preface to make sure the reader gets them—and it's all a bit much. There are the makings of about 20 really interesting poems here, but all run together it's a manic mess. It's like reading the world's most depressing Twitter feed. Going back to the preface, I hate that it's absolutely necessary that the poet explain the references ahead of time. If the poem doesn't work on its own without an explanation ahead of time, then it doesn't work. There are so many fun and imaginative things happening here, but there are too many negatives for me to fully enjoy it, appreciate it, or take it seriously,

[Abi Tabor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not enough words to explain my love and admiration for this epic.

[Meg Ready · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book you must sit down with and read cover-to-cover. The language only gets more charged and heightened until the final movements wherein the reader is asked to be complicit in devastation, to be a part of the refrain, and to reframe the human existence from the pollutant ideology that mankind is above everything else. The feminist lens is a keen one and guides the reader through the mythologies of a quintessential American experience. It devastated me and has dulled my readings of other poets thereafter. An excellent and poignant collection.