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Flatlands
Poetry. "Some writers approach the Nebraska plains as a big, empty other into which they may imagine. I understand the appeal of that mythology. But in Ruth Williams gorgeous new collection, FLATLANDS, the landscape is as alive as the plains truly are, and serves as both a generating place and quixotic companion to Williams's subtle, precise speaker. Throughout the poems, Williams images are beautifully wrought and full of a salmon being filleted opens like 'a girl's coral dress come undone,' and the 'night heat' of spent fireworks sleeps in the hands of children who are 'ready to knock.' I love this book—it's musical syncopation, the tight, clean transparency of the poems' lines. I think Willa Cather, the collection's genius loci, would admire Williams's work, recognizing its fundamental truthfulness. Which is about the highest compliment I have to give."—Erin Belieu
"Ruth Williams' FLATLANDS starts from the premise of emptiness and uncovers resources for what can be found and what's to be made. Landscape, identity, desire, the past and the moment—the distinct constellation of her concerns is thrown into focus by a taut, understated craft. These seemingly casual observations break out in bursts of insight flaring against the broad horizon."—Don Bogen
"Ruth Williams' FLATLANDS starts from the premise of emptiness and uncovers resources for what can be found and what's to be made. Landscape, identity, desire, the past and the moment—the distinct constellation of her concerns is thrown into focus by a taut, understated craft. These seemingly casual observations break out in bursts of insight flaring against the broad horizon."—Don Bogen
- GenresPoetry
60 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2018
14 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Williams
4 books2 followersRuth Williams is the author of Flatlands (Black Lawrence Press, 2018), Nursewifery (Jacar Press, 2019), and Conveyance (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). Her poetry has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, jubilat, Pleiades and Third Coast among others. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of English at William Jewell College and an Editor for Bear Review.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 29, 2018
Flatlands is a delight. These poems are beautiful, spare, and at times wonderfully weird. Williams is able to take a part of the country we normally dismiss (the Midwest) and elevate it to gorgeous subject matter. Precise and controlled, these poems show the poet's excellent grasp of form and line. I enjoyed this book so much!
May 25, 2018
‘In my hometown, I go out on a plains level night to seek exquisiteness, a shred of excess.’
Missouri poet Ruth Williams is an Assistant Professor of English at William Jewell College and an editor for Bear Review. Her works can be seen in her chapbook
‘Conveyance’ and her poems have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, jubilat, Pleiades and Third Coast among others. She has also published creative nonfiction in DIAGRAM and Crab Orchard Review as well as scholarly work on women’s writing and feminism in Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, The Journal of Popular Culture, and College Literature.
Ruth has that rare ability to allow us to see and experience moments in nature and life in general from a vantage we have not known. Simple ideas become microcosms of novelty. She spreads light on unknown places and finds ways of expressing thoughts that we may have thought just tangential to the way the world works, and instead revealing mysteries so profound they seem accessible, knowable, part of what we might now notice while walking in the enlightened steps of Ruth Williams.
But of course reading Ruth’s poems reveal much more than an overview can.
Lover’s Leap Butte
Early on, I learned to love
the feel of fingers curled
in a giant rug, some bison fur,
horned head reduced
to a hump.
That beast was quiet,
but later, when I had my first kiss,
I knew the sound of dogs
was what I could expect.
They howled like tongues
whipping the grass. He and I,
biting eating each other
to keep warm.
I’d grow up, kicking rocks
softly, then pushing
the larger ones over the edge. As if
to test what reaction
the action of falling is.
Plain Winter
The winter lengthens. The blank horizon is a way
of being more profound than snow. Inside it, a lantern
swatch of yellow curling over a buried leg.
In pioneer days, they’d tie frozen
bodies to the fencepost, The twine a way of
waiting for spring.
Simple, eloquent thoughts so beautifully crafted they transport us into places we haven’t known – or recognized. Here is a significant poet. Listen.
Missouri poet Ruth Williams is an Assistant Professor of English at William Jewell College and an editor for Bear Review. Her works can be seen in her chapbook
‘Conveyance’ and her poems have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, jubilat, Pleiades and Third Coast among others. She has also published creative nonfiction in DIAGRAM and Crab Orchard Review as well as scholarly work on women’s writing and feminism in Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, The Journal of Popular Culture, and College Literature.
Ruth has that rare ability to allow us to see and experience moments in nature and life in general from a vantage we have not known. Simple ideas become microcosms of novelty. She spreads light on unknown places and finds ways of expressing thoughts that we may have thought just tangential to the way the world works, and instead revealing mysteries so profound they seem accessible, knowable, part of what we might now notice while walking in the enlightened steps of Ruth Williams.
But of course reading Ruth’s poems reveal much more than an overview can.
Lover’s Leap Butte
Early on, I learned to love
the feel of fingers curled
in a giant rug, some bison fur,
horned head reduced
to a hump.
That beast was quiet,
but later, when I had my first kiss,
I knew the sound of dogs
was what I could expect.
They howled like tongues
whipping the grass. He and I,
biting eating each other
to keep warm.
I’d grow up, kicking rocks
softly, then pushing
the larger ones over the edge. As if
to test what reaction
the action of falling is.
Plain Winter
The winter lengthens. The blank horizon is a way
of being more profound than snow. Inside it, a lantern
swatch of yellow curling over a buried leg.
In pioneer days, they’d tie frozen
bodies to the fencepost, The twine a way of
waiting for spring.
Simple, eloquent thoughts so beautifully crafted they transport us into places we haven’t known – or recognized. Here is a significant poet. Listen.
January 3, 2019
Williams's poems provide sharply distinct perspectives on all of the big topics such as identity, humanity, and our connections to place. All of these snapshots are tied back to the flatlands of the speaker's home, creating a simultaneously cohesive and varied collection that can be enjoyed for the aesthetic of language itself and/or the deeper ideas behind them.
September 8, 2019
Living in Colorado and having grown up in Missouri (and traveling between now) the open plains feel and the quirk of the Midwest shines through.
*WILLA Award finalist for poetry, 2019*
*WILLA Award finalist for poetry, 2019*
May 27, 2023
Impressive economy, though I often wanted these poems to unroll from their tightly coiled selves. I think I'll return to this book, though — many beautifully compressed jewels here.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews