Under-Worldly: Poetry by Kristie Betts Letter

by Kristie Betts Letter

Beginning with a canary and ending with a warning from Eurydice, Under-Worldly gives poetic voice to the subterranean. This hybrid poetry collection examines what lies beneath, moving from water pipes in Michigan, to Colorado boomtown mines or to the emotional minefields of hair metal bands. Environmental concerns and historical re-visioning take shape in sharp phrases and expansions of tradition poetic form. Literal and figurative underworlds abound in schools, beneath a car's hood and from Neil Armstrong's perspective in space. Nancy Drew and Baby Doe Tabor explore new depths. When the river runs backwards at New Madrid or nightswimming tugs bodies down, these poems articulate the architecture of bones beneath the world's flesh.

80 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2017

Reviews

[Angie Gallion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kristie Betts Letter drew me into her work of poetry from the very dedication of her collection, Under-Worldly. There is a whimsical playfulness in Letter’s words that is often contradicted by the gripping images that her succinct phrases elicit. This is not poetry of the old school, this is verse that expresses and expands, pulling images and emotion from a variety of familiar songs, literature, and phrases. Letter utilizes lines from great literature and popular music to set the stage for her poems and often interweaves the lyrics right into the piece. It is an effective weaving and Betts will draw you through her book as she delves deeper into all thing “under.” Under-Worldly deals with love and loss, of growing old, of eugenics, birth control. Letter draws up our lost puppies from childhood, she explores Purgatory and Paradise, and pays tribute to the 80’s hair bands and delves into the social norms, acceptable behavior, the failures of a government to its people, the heartbreak of a dying mother, the stark recognition of abortion.

I enjoyed Kristie Betts Letter’s technique in Under Worldly. It was powerful, the way she created full color, full imagined stories with the fewest of words. She does a masterful job of telling a story, which you may not fully appreciate until you reach the end. Letter’s poetry is clean and precise and very evocative. I lingered on within the pages, pausing over the lines of print and drawing a small set of words to a fully developed scene. “Brick House” took my again to my own childhood home, and it will probably take you to yours, too. While many of Letter’s poems were simple to process, others I read through several times, pausing and appreciating the rhythms caused by my voice rising
into the air, before the comprehension dawned and the fog shifted away. It’s a collection well worth recommendation.