Count the Waves: Poems

by Sandra Beasley

“Beasley uses humor and surprise like a scythe, cutting to the root of a matter.”―Washington Post In Count the Waves , Sandra Beasley turns her eclectic imagination to the heart's pursuits. A man and a woman sit at the same dinner table, an ocean of worry separating them. An iceberg sets out to dance. A sword swallower ponders his dating prospects. "The vessel is simple, a rowboat among yachts," the poet observes in "Ukulele." "No one hides a Tommy gun in its case. / No bluesman runs over his uke in a whiskey rage." Beasley's voice is pithy and playful, with a ferocious intelligence that invites comparison to both Sylvia Plath and Dorothy Parker. In one of six signature sestinas, she warns, "You must not use a house to build a home, / and never look for poetry in poems." The collection’s centerpiece is a haunting sequence that engages The Traveler's Vade Mecum , an 1853 compendium of phrases for use by mail, telegraph, or the enigmatic “Instantaneous Letter Writer." Assembled over ten years and thousands of miles, these poems illuminate how intimacy is lost and gained during our travels. Decisive, funny, and as compassionate as she is merciless, Beasley is a reckoning force on the page.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2015

About the author

Sandra Beasley is the author of I Was the Jukebox, winner of the 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize, selected by Joy Harjo and published by W. W. Norton. Her debut book, Theories of Falling, was selected by Marie Howe as the winner of the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize (New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2008). Her poetry has been featured in the Best American Poetry 2010, and her nonfiction has been featured in the Washington Post Magazine. In July, Crown will publish Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales From an Allergic Life , a memoir and cultural history of food allergies. When not traveling for readings and residencies, Beasley lives in Washington, DC, where she serves on the faculty of the Writer's Center.

Reviews

[Edgar Trevizo · Rating 1 out of 5]

No sé si alguna vez hayan sentido que un autor simplemente les está tomando el pelo. Y por supuesto, se sienten ofendidos. Eso sentí con este libro.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeously rendered poems. This is a collection I will come back to again and again.

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inventive, funny and moving, reading Counting the Waves is a treat. The central conceit is The Traveller’s Vade Mecum: a book of stock phrases that could be used in telegrams. Beasley uses these phrases to inspire poems on many different subjects, from parable to grief, food to philosophy. Beasley’s tightly controlled language to expresses imaginative ideas, such as the place of goats on the island of Kaua’i, the formation of precious stones, or how intoxication brings emotional clarity. I particularly enjoyed Beasley’s focus on specificity of emotion and place, such as in the poem The Traveller’s Vade Mecum, Line #5450: “In A State of Intoxication”, when she says: “When I say I wish to correspond with you, / what I mean is I want to bite your tongue / across these many miles.”

Her poetry is often very funny, and always inventive. The way she plays with language is superlative: she is a uniquely talented poet. Her poetry also has a wonderful warmth. One poem that I keep returning too and consistently makes me smile is The Traveller’s Vade Mecum, Line #4088: “In the Latest Fashion” which begins, “Before the woman crosses the street with her ferret, she tucks it high under her arm like an unruly baguette.” The poem goes on to describe the tenderness between the woman and her strange pet with its “little thief face”, and it becomes a symbol for our own aloneness from other people. The poem ends by saying, “You say my name but I would rather be her, this woman who has found her interrobang and refuses to set it down.” Beasley’s poetry is full of a wonderful humanity, as well as a huge respect for non-human animals. I found her work refreshing and compelling, and highly recommend it.

[Jeremy Allan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were points where Count the Waves felt overwhelmed by its project, or by the intelligence of its maker. There is no question in my mind, however, that Sandra Beasley is very talented, and I was often pleased throughout reading this book. I would be curious, however, to see what might happen to her work with the controls left without a steward. What would it look like with a bit of havoc running through it? Would that it were more unruly. But perhaps that is too easy to say from where I'm sitting.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beasley opens up poems, even if you’re not looking to see their guts: “You want /
to hold my hand, but not the blood / within that hand.”

Words separate us more than space.

My favorite Beasley poems have sting on their tongue, taking definitions and overturning the context of the words: "If some think me babbling, imagine how a game of chess / appears to one who has only ever known a checkerboard."

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

My area of focus in my ongoing graduate studies is poetry and so I am forever reading books of poetry in search of authors who write engaging, intelligent poetry. Beasley is one such author. My favorites were Halloween, One-Tenth of the Body, & The Traveler's Vade Mecum (#s 7671, 2485 and 8206).

Pick this up and read to discover not only a great poet, but your own favorites as well!

[hh · Rating 4 out of 5]

the perfect dash of sass.

[Jessica Bang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid collection.

[Kinsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Verrrryyy difficult for me to understand. This author definitely has a way with words and is talented in the art of poetry, but most of it went right over my head. There were two or three that I understood and appreciated, I'll share parts of them below.

"To live is to take without permission.
If you could see oaks
in their entirety, you would be offended
by their many-fingered grab of dirt and sky."
(pg. 64)

"Consider, when
they offer to name a day in a man's honor,
the ten thousand days to follow.
These will be, by definition, not his days.
If you purchase a Celestial Registration Kit
your sweetheart's star will outlive her
in that distant galaxy, flexing light in hope
of a constellation's embrace."
(pg. 70)

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in. Loved being wherever these poems went.

Loved the gravedigger's notes to himself and the concept running through: of poems in place of missive-pieces. (It *still* takes me a bit to figure this: a number code for "I'm not coming after all," translated into a poem that saunters in and around "I'm not coming after all" -- maybe it is that the sauntering is far and wide. I'm all for that, but I often couldn't keep the missive-piece and the poem together.)

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled with this book of poetry. There were a couple of selections I enjoyed, but the others didn't resonate with me. The collection felt disjointed and choppy. I may come back to it and try again...I was reading this while waiting at the DMV, so maybe my mindset could have been more open and my thinking more flexible.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've closed out this year of reading with more poetry I don't wholly understand but appreciate a great deal. I especially liked "Inner Flamingo;" "In the Latest Fashion;" "Grief Puppet;" "The Calamity is Not Serious;" and "Inventory."


"But later, we could all remember that dank felt,
and how the last of grief's flock lifted from our chests."

"A poem's coming through, lifting her skirt."

"Only a blinking eye can measure the light."

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not without its evocative moments, but they're few and far between. Here we have lexical overindulgence meeting highbrow aspirations, the result being not so much fancifully poetic as stumbling and often incomprehensible. There's potential here, but it's sadly crippled by self-regard. Not recommended, though perhaps we'll see better efforts in the future.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Playful and beautiful poems. Two threads that weave in interesting ways. Also, sestinas. Six of them.