Then Winter

by Chloe Honum

Poetry. Women's Studies. Editors' Selection from the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. THEN WINTER traces one speaker's journey in a psychiatric treatment facility. Faced with the threat of a loss of voice, a silence that seeks to bury her, she turns often to the natural world beyond the facility's windows. The trees, the rain, the birds--these commonplace things become tethering forces of primal, hope-giving importance. As she forms bonds with her fellow patients, some of whom become her unlikely confidants and friends, she discovers the sustaining power of connection and hope.

Genres: Poetry

25 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Jenna]

My review of this chapbook was published by Poetry Northwest this month: http://www.poetrynw.org/two-sides-one...

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think what I like best about this collection is the arc or the movement from the onset of illness to help from the ward/clinic and finally, to independence. There are admirable lines in each poem, but I can't say the volume overall blew me away. Favorite poems are Note Home (seems like a perfect missive home from the ward; prose poem form works best here), Rest (love these lines, as others have noted: "Freshly cut flowers and wrapped in newspaper,/that's how I want to rest, my dreams/like white petals absorbing ink."), and Teaching Poetry at the Juvenile Detention Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Fave lines:

I will sing the song of the trees in the cold wind, the way they rush up like flames. [from Offerings]

At home, my dog sleeps beside me. She groans as I slide my hand beneath her head. I speak to her. I carry her warm, happy skull through the night. [from The Ward Above]

Coming toward me, a hooded woman carries a gladiola like a spine in bloom. [from We're Supposed to Get Snow Tonight]

When I finally fainted, it was as silky as I'd imagined, as if sleeping and waking were two sides of one pearl. [from Group Therapy]

By evening, he waits in a shimmering boat. [from The Master of Dreams]

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

So precise and elegantly honed, with such stark, unsentimental similes. Really, she has a sense of metaphor that is unlike anyone else. I think I could recognize one of her similes anywhere. Both of her books are perfect, but this one might just edge out The Tulip-Flame for me. Read them both, though.

Here are three favorites:

Group Therapy
http://waxwingmag.org/items/Issue8/16...

Offerings
https://linebreak.org/poems/offerings/#

Stay Beside Me
http://twopeach.com/chloehonum

Chloe and I went to graduate school together, and this poem is especially powerful to me as I've taught poetry in this very same room:

Teaching Poetry at the Juvenile Detention Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
http://www.diodepoetry.com/v9n1/conte...

Very highly recommended.

[Macy Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honum's beautiful, clinical poetry is a great read. I really loved the last three poems that leap outside of the psychiatric hospital setting that most of the chapbook is written in. Overall a solid read.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of these delicate poems start grounded in an uncomfortable reality and then seem to distance themselves into metaphor, transforming into a different kind of darkness. I got the sense of a series of black and white snapshots painted in words. Nice collection.

[Josalyn Monahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was beautiful. I devoured it the first time through, and then immediately read it again. Honum grounds the reader with her repeated imagery and symbols, and she shows what a psychiatric ward is really like through characterization and dialogue. I would definite recommend reading this.

[Rahul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it while reading it, I'm pretty sure, but I thought a lot of the poems were a tad blase. I do remember enjoying the plot progressions, and the irony of ending the collection in a correctional center. "Hope is anything that travels in big leaps."

[Matthew Siegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very beautiful chapbook. I adore Chloe Honum's poems.

[Kelsey May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chloe Honum’s chapbook “Then Winter” was released from Bull City Press in 2017; I read it last fall and reread it this winter, cherishing the intimate observations and vulnerable recollections of a stay in a psychiatric hospital. These poems offer solace and insight, equipping the reader with both empathy and knowledge of a time in the speaker’s life that was formative and very difficult.

Even without having experienced as severe a crisis as the subject of the book, I turned to these poems and am still able to relate and gain comfort, healing, and solidarity from them, and for that, I’m grateful.

Full review at: https://hyypeonline.com/2019/03/06/th...

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Flowers freshly cut and wrapped in newspaper, / that's how I want to rest, my dreams / like white petals absorbing ink."

I really enjoyed this collection; many of the poems are set in a psychiatric ward, the narratives weaving inside and outside its walls. Review forthcoming.