Born

by Jon Boisvert

Poetry. In Boisvert’s world, horses sprout from seeds and fawns fall out of the sky. And a whole day may pass where all we do is take turns holding brightly-colored babies swaddled in white towels. But inside that day is the quiet reminder that not all our children survive. Though sometimes as a minotaur and sometimes as a tree, the speaker in these poems moves through surreal plots and landscapes which, when read together, create a touching and singular story of childhood and parenthood, and of transformation through loss.

80 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2017

Reviews

[Anatoly Molotkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

"How much, I ask the butcher about the great beast he is flaying. It's not good, he replies sadly. What's wrong with it? I press him, to which he begins to cry. This table of blood, flesh & knives reminds me of fatherhood, & I begin to cry as well." Jon Boisvert's incomparable collection of prose poems builds an alternate world steeped in surrealism and enlivened by dark family dynamics, and offers many magnificent glimpses of compassion, humor and insight. A sincere and compelling voice.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kind of collection full of lines I wish I would have written. Surrealist prose poems with a tender and signature voice. There's an unsaid through-line that is so lucid and seamless. I didn't find out about this collection until this year (thanks to the poet Will Erickson) but it's right up my alley. Strange, heartbreaking, violent, dreamy, unusual, and brief. One of the best best prose poetry collections I've read.