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: ab ovo :
Poetry. "In :AB a momentous life-change is chronicled, is found new language for. Jenn McCreary's re-starting point is where begins the divide of cell from cell, word from experience, individual from family (and family from individual). Her questioning of a lifetime of a priori givens takes over language, inviting it to accommodate her unacknowledged world. Her expansive collection is 'almost like the ocean. it's nothing like the ocean' in its mystery and precision. You will step off the edge of :AB and find yourself held by air"--Marcella Durand.
102 pages, paperback
First published January 1, 2009
32 people want to read
About the author
Jenn McCreary
9 books16 followersJenn McCreary’s new full-length collection, & now my feet are maps, is now available from Dusie Press. Other works include The Dark Mouth of Living (Horse Less Press), :ab ovo: (Dusie Press), a doctrine of signatures (Singing Horse Press), & Odyssey & Oracle (Least Weasel Press). She was recently named a 2013 Pew Fellow in the Arts for Literature.
She lives in Philadelphia with her family, where she co-edits ixnay press with Chris McCreary.
She lives in Philadelphia with her family, where she co-edits ixnay press with Chris McCreary.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 8, 2009
MicroPoetry Review O&S JENN McCREARY
PRIVATE MIRTH & PUBLIC SHARING
Review by Grady Harp
Jenn McCreary is a poet so sensitive to the ordinary she can share her personal musings of life as it is happening and make them extraordinary. Her recently published collection, :ab ovo:, resembles the treasures of a Fabergé egg in more ways then title derivation. ‘Ab ovo’ means ‘from the egg’ and the majority of the poems in this polished assemblage in some way reflect conception and all the permutations of that word such as Spring, Renaissance, discovery, the art of being pregnant, and the products of pregnancy, products including the child (here children) and the daily mysteries and glee of observing an infant become a person.
McCreary (and her husband Chris whom she gracefully includes in her poems about the world of birthing!) gave birth to twin boys – Caleb and Malcolm, boys of such vulnerable and generous spirit that the reader feels a kinship by book’s end. This event, an ongoing influence in the poet’s life, is the core of celebration of :ab ovo: and the manner in which the conception and bearing and delivery and early years of the born two is so fresh and full of wise yet refreshingly naïve observations is what makes reading her poetry so warmly gratifying.
The collection is divided into seven sections. The first (and title) section shares the wonder as well as the ageless superstitions of pregnancy. As in 6. ‘the following to be taken under advisement: if she goes to the place where cloth is being bleached, her child will be pale. If she sticks pins or needles into curtains, her child will have bad teeth. If she ties a rope around herself, her child will be hanged. If she pierces her bread with a knife or fork, her child’s eyes will be put out. If she walks over a grave, her child will die.’
The second section :lying-in:, more a mixture of prose with poetry, describes the process of ultrasound providing the discovery of twins through the process of delivery to the wonder of coping with two instead of one ab ovo. ‘Rachel writes: You will think another thought; you will write poems, even good ones from this. Just believe this, & relax, if possible. Of course the days are swimming together.’
:the calendar of lucky and unlucky days:, section 3, is rich in metaphors and lyrical flights of fantasy. ':in which borders are defined: to live here is to understand things: spring & fall, trains are delayed by wet leaves on the tracks; winter, we ignite fairy lights that hang all year in the trees. Else, we wait for rains to break the heat. Everything is archetypal. Or of an ilk. Not hoity-toity, but certainly on a high horse. These swirl around us with a heavier kind of slowness & still sloshing all that lovely death inside. like tremendous diseases.’ Section 4 :borrowed landscape: McCreary offers brief, five line tunes of random thoughts. In section 5 :confinement: the poet presents a series of letters to various recipients and in this section we are reminded of McCreary’s familiar finesse with words describing flights of fantasy grounded by inserted asides of reality that create wholly satisfying individual poems.
McCreary returns to her theme in section 6 :interstitials: with a series that mixes once again prose with poetry and the result is as close to a child’s manner of observing the new world as any artist has achieved. She interacts with Caleb and Malcolm with as much humor as she explodes with glee and satisfaction of the wonder of her twin’s responses. And she closes the collection with section 7 :just so:, each poem referencing the style of poets of older times.
o strange mammal:
& where did we
go today? & what
did you see?
& then we saw rocks.
the rocks were very big, &
so very quiet.
Jenn McCreary dances to her own music – and turns around to notice we are watching and listening and takes flight. And we are invited along. There is magic here. Enter and enjoy!
PRIVATE MIRTH & PUBLIC SHARING
Review by Grady Harp
Jenn McCreary is a poet so sensitive to the ordinary she can share her personal musings of life as it is happening and make them extraordinary. Her recently published collection, :ab ovo:, resembles the treasures of a Fabergé egg in more ways then title derivation. ‘Ab ovo’ means ‘from the egg’ and the majority of the poems in this polished assemblage in some way reflect conception and all the permutations of that word such as Spring, Renaissance, discovery, the art of being pregnant, and the products of pregnancy, products including the child (here children) and the daily mysteries and glee of observing an infant become a person.
McCreary (and her husband Chris whom she gracefully includes in her poems about the world of birthing!) gave birth to twin boys – Caleb and Malcolm, boys of such vulnerable and generous spirit that the reader feels a kinship by book’s end. This event, an ongoing influence in the poet’s life, is the core of celebration of :ab ovo: and the manner in which the conception and bearing and delivery and early years of the born two is so fresh and full of wise yet refreshingly naïve observations is what makes reading her poetry so warmly gratifying.
The collection is divided into seven sections. The first (and title) section shares the wonder as well as the ageless superstitions of pregnancy. As in 6. ‘the following to be taken under advisement: if she goes to the place where cloth is being bleached, her child will be pale. If she sticks pins or needles into curtains, her child will have bad teeth. If she ties a rope around herself, her child will be hanged. If she pierces her bread with a knife or fork, her child’s eyes will be put out. If she walks over a grave, her child will die.’
The second section :lying-in:, more a mixture of prose with poetry, describes the process of ultrasound providing the discovery of twins through the process of delivery to the wonder of coping with two instead of one ab ovo. ‘Rachel writes: You will think another thought; you will write poems, even good ones from this. Just believe this, & relax, if possible. Of course the days are swimming together.’
:the calendar of lucky and unlucky days:, section 3, is rich in metaphors and lyrical flights of fantasy. ':in which borders are defined: to live here is to understand things: spring & fall, trains are delayed by wet leaves on the tracks; winter, we ignite fairy lights that hang all year in the trees. Else, we wait for rains to break the heat. Everything is archetypal. Or of an ilk. Not hoity-toity, but certainly on a high horse. These swirl around us with a heavier kind of slowness & still sloshing all that lovely death inside. like tremendous diseases.’ Section 4 :borrowed landscape: McCreary offers brief, five line tunes of random thoughts. In section 5 :confinement: the poet presents a series of letters to various recipients and in this section we are reminded of McCreary’s familiar finesse with words describing flights of fantasy grounded by inserted asides of reality that create wholly satisfying individual poems.
McCreary returns to her theme in section 6 :interstitials: with a series that mixes once again prose with poetry and the result is as close to a child’s manner of observing the new world as any artist has achieved. She interacts with Caleb and Malcolm with as much humor as she explodes with glee and satisfaction of the wonder of her twin’s responses. And she closes the collection with section 7 :just so:, each poem referencing the style of poets of older times.
o strange mammal:
& where did we
go today? & what
did you see?
& then we saw rocks.
the rocks were very big, &
so very quiet.
Jenn McCreary dances to her own music – and turns around to notice we are watching and listening and takes flight. And we are invited along. There is magic here. Enter and enjoy!
September 28, 2009
LOVE IT!
I've created a (Soma)tic Reading Enhancement for it, which you can see at the ATTENTION SPAN 2009 List here: http://thirdfactory.wordpress.com/200...
THIS IS AN AMAZING YEAR FOR POETRY!
CAConrad
http://CAConrad.blogspot.com
I've created a (Soma)tic Reading Enhancement for it, which you can see at the ATTENTION SPAN 2009 List here: http://thirdfactory.wordpress.com/200...
THIS IS AN AMAZING YEAR FOR POETRY!
CAConrad
http://CAConrad.blogspot.com
June 13, 2025
random, watered down. she needs to let go of long-form!
April 9, 2009
forthcoming, spring 2009!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews