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Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems
“Elaine Equi’s narrow lines are like the rungs of a ladder that one ascends while one is descending them. It’s a motion like that in Wang Wei’s lines, ‘Stars / float up / toward dawn,’ which she quotes in her cento, ‘Wang Wei’s Moon.’ Or, as she beautifully puts it, ‘Discreetly a breeze enters the room.’”—John Ashbery Ripple Effect showcases thirty years of Elaine Equi’s investigations into our cultural obsessions. Vivid, savvy, and accessible, her poems can transform almost anything—a list, a diary entry, advertising speak—into sophisticated, germane elixirs of pop culture and high art. Widely published, these poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, and numerous volumes of The Best American Poetry.
- GenresPoetry
270 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 7, 2023
Excellent.
December 6, 2009
One of the most important books in the my development as a writer. It showed me that poetry can be instantly accessible without sacrificing any sort of esteem or ambition. It showed me that "poetry is veiled" is not only a stereotype, but at this point a cliche.
July 10, 2009
A unique sensibility, a keenness of intellect and a generous spirit that together form a great gift to American poetry. A metaphysical comedian. Our homegrown Szymborska. I've been a fan for years.
February 22, 2012
Her take on the world and creativity with verse is quite inspiring.
August 8, 2008
Review for BigCityLit follows:
When Pop Gets Culture: A Review of Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems
by Larissa Shmailo
Anyone who knows Elaine Equi’s work will not be surprised by the breadth of subject matter this “expansive minimalist” presents in this volume. Her poems are, after all, Zen koans for our time, and Equi covers it all, from “the Grecian urn/to Grecian formula 44” (“Voice Over”). Equi’s work is where pop truly gets culture, understands it, loves it, buys it a drink, and takes it home at night. But reading this retrospective with its framing sections of new and old work, I nonetheless am still surprised and delighted by these poems, and their sly, wry, and fundamentally kind point of view.
The book begins with her new work, jumps to selections from her first Coffee House publication Surface Tension, moves through work from Decoy, Voice Over, The Cloud of Unknowable Things, and then rounds back to early work from books such as the landmark Federal Woman. It is a curving motion through repeated themes and forms which works well, showing the growth of the body of work and then its roots.
In the clean aphoristic lines of Ripple Effect live multitudes: cannibals, monsters, dinosaurs, ghosts, clowns, Einstein, The Munsters, Jackson Mac Low, Victor Mature, Elvis, Robbe-Grillet, Edgar Allen Poe, David Hockney, the nuclear family, Wittgenstein, Kawabata, Joe Brainard, H.D., and the poet’s hero, Frank O’Hara. By the artist’s pop brush, these icons often are found in unusual settings and moods. “Self Portrait with You” finds Equi
dreaming of a conversation
where voices don’t match faces—
Heidegger’s words
in Marilyn Monroe’s mouth
“Decoy” challenges the reader to
see Artaud in the role
of game show host
or Let’s Make a Deal
as theater of cruelty.
Equi’s titles are catchy and often quotidian. Her tone is that of an erudite Erma Bombeck, an oracle with office hours. Her poems are replete with succinct wisdom, often hilariously put. From “Decoy”:
Historically, the doppelganger
is not a nice person
From “Aleister Crowley Slept Here”:
There is something banal about evil
but the reverse is also true.
And from “Second Thoughts,” a poem for Rae Armantrout:
20. Confidence comes from knowing you can always get
back what you lose.
Like her objectivist forbears, Equi emphasizes clarity, sincerity, and intelligence in her art. Equi adds humor and magic to this mix. Her philosophy of language and poetry is often delivered tongue-in-cheek and with sleight of hand. From “Return of the Sensuous Reader”:
Turning Down the Sound
Remove all the words from a poem;
keep only the punctuation.
Can You Recognize This Famous Poem?
,
.
.
A sublime treat for purists
or good exercise to cleanse the palate.
More seriously, she defines a poem by “whatever cannot be killed by the translator” (“Found in Translation”). From “Martha Graham”:
poetry
is not about words
nor math about numbers
And from “A Poetics of Optics”
Perhaps the poet is moved to write
by what Todorov calls
“the visual poverty of letters”
(as compared to painting)
We are poor; we must imagine….
The poem may be an object, but objects are essential: From “The Banal”:
…Thus any object can
bring us back with the fast-acting power of
aspirin. Any object shines.
From “Art about Fear”
Some objects
are like a sieve
that language
passes through
while others
repel the alphabet
with a harsh
clanging skin
Even if poetry is not merely about its words, Equi’s are sensuous, visually beautiful, palpable, and delectable. From the assonance of “A Lemon”:
In the lemon
we find a fire
that cools, coos
to the beautiful word play of “Voice Over”:
How like
an ear
the earth
listens,
lies down
to listen—
a spoonful
of sounds
dissolving
In this collection, Equi tosses off writing exercises from list poems (“Things to Do in the Bible” includes “Build an Ark/Interpret dreams/Kill your brother/Don’t Look Back”) and other workshop staples with elegance and humor, as in “Etudes,” which she professorially begins in the fall.
Autumn is a solitude
Winter is a fortitude
Spring is an altitude
Summer is an attitude
Throughout Ripple Effect, the poet generously homages her influences. Some the poet takes by her own “Prescription,” reading Robert Herrick for melancholy, Lorine Niedecker for clarity, and Frank O’Hara’s for nerve. Equi also demonstrates Herrick’s carpe diem: The first poem in this collection is entitled “Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life.” The poet recognizes the gift and burden of the now.
The present
is a gift we give to ourselves, its ribbon tied in a Gordian knot …
Yet there is not much anguished flailing about with knotty dilemmas here. Like shadows, AIDS and illness, depression, and family pain find their way to Equi’s canvas. However, Equi’s poetry is circumspect and follows the dictum of the Comte de Lautremont, who cautioned writers to show their readers only the experience born of pain, and not to cry in public. Overall, Equi gives the impression that, whatever may happen—and much can happen in this multidimensional, shifting universe—she trusts the world. As one denizen of her poems tells the poet:
“it doesn’t take a genie
to see you’re destined
for fun
and as awful as it sounds”
you must learn to make the best of it.”
—“You Go to My Head”
As the poet herself says in “I Interview Elaine Equi on the Four Elements”
A: The earth has always supported me in all my endeavors. I trust it.
So the reader of Ripple Effect, guided by the poet through imagination, improvisation, and the avant, also trusts enough to willingly follow Equi’s edgy lead.
When Pop Gets Culture: A Review of Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems
by Larissa Shmailo
Anyone who knows Elaine Equi’s work will not be surprised by the breadth of subject matter this “expansive minimalist” presents in this volume. Her poems are, after all, Zen koans for our time, and Equi covers it all, from “the Grecian urn/to Grecian formula 44” (“Voice Over”). Equi’s work is where pop truly gets culture, understands it, loves it, buys it a drink, and takes it home at night. But reading this retrospective with its framing sections of new and old work, I nonetheless am still surprised and delighted by these poems, and their sly, wry, and fundamentally kind point of view.
The book begins with her new work, jumps to selections from her first Coffee House publication Surface Tension, moves through work from Decoy, Voice Over, The Cloud of Unknowable Things, and then rounds back to early work from books such as the landmark Federal Woman. It is a curving motion through repeated themes and forms which works well, showing the growth of the body of work and then its roots.
In the clean aphoristic lines of Ripple Effect live multitudes: cannibals, monsters, dinosaurs, ghosts, clowns, Einstein, The Munsters, Jackson Mac Low, Victor Mature, Elvis, Robbe-Grillet, Edgar Allen Poe, David Hockney, the nuclear family, Wittgenstein, Kawabata, Joe Brainard, H.D., and the poet’s hero, Frank O’Hara. By the artist’s pop brush, these icons often are found in unusual settings and moods. “Self Portrait with You” finds Equi
dreaming of a conversation
where voices don’t match faces—
Heidegger’s words
in Marilyn Monroe’s mouth
“Decoy” challenges the reader to
see Artaud in the role
of game show host
or Let’s Make a Deal
as theater of cruelty.
Equi’s titles are catchy and often quotidian. Her tone is that of an erudite Erma Bombeck, an oracle with office hours. Her poems are replete with succinct wisdom, often hilariously put. From “Decoy”:
Historically, the doppelganger
is not a nice person
From “Aleister Crowley Slept Here”:
There is something banal about evil
but the reverse is also true.
And from “Second Thoughts,” a poem for Rae Armantrout:
20. Confidence comes from knowing you can always get
back what you lose.
Like her objectivist forbears, Equi emphasizes clarity, sincerity, and intelligence in her art. Equi adds humor and magic to this mix. Her philosophy of language and poetry is often delivered tongue-in-cheek and with sleight of hand. From “Return of the Sensuous Reader”:
Turning Down the Sound
Remove all the words from a poem;
keep only the punctuation.
Can You Recognize This Famous Poem?
,
.
.
A sublime treat for purists
or good exercise to cleanse the palate.
More seriously, she defines a poem by “whatever cannot be killed by the translator” (“Found in Translation”). From “Martha Graham”:
poetry
is not about words
nor math about numbers
And from “A Poetics of Optics”
Perhaps the poet is moved to write
by what Todorov calls
“the visual poverty of letters”
(as compared to painting)
We are poor; we must imagine….
The poem may be an object, but objects are essential: From “The Banal”:
…Thus any object can
bring us back with the fast-acting power of
aspirin. Any object shines.
From “Art about Fear”
Some objects
are like a sieve
that language
passes through
while others
repel the alphabet
with a harsh
clanging skin
Even if poetry is not merely about its words, Equi’s are sensuous, visually beautiful, palpable, and delectable. From the assonance of “A Lemon”:
In the lemon
we find a fire
that cools, coos
to the beautiful word play of “Voice Over”:
How like
an ear
the earth
listens,
lies down
to listen—
a spoonful
of sounds
dissolving
In this collection, Equi tosses off writing exercises from list poems (“Things to Do in the Bible” includes “Build an Ark/Interpret dreams/Kill your brother/Don’t Look Back”) and other workshop staples with elegance and humor, as in “Etudes,” which she professorially begins in the fall.
Autumn is a solitude
Winter is a fortitude
Spring is an altitude
Summer is an attitude
Throughout Ripple Effect, the poet generously homages her influences. Some the poet takes by her own “Prescription,” reading Robert Herrick for melancholy, Lorine Niedecker for clarity, and Frank O’Hara’s for nerve. Equi also demonstrates Herrick’s carpe diem: The first poem in this collection is entitled “Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life.” The poet recognizes the gift and burden of the now.
The present
is a gift we give to ourselves, its ribbon tied in a Gordian knot …
Yet there is not much anguished flailing about with knotty dilemmas here. Like shadows, AIDS and illness, depression, and family pain find their way to Equi’s canvas. However, Equi’s poetry is circumspect and follows the dictum of the Comte de Lautremont, who cautioned writers to show their readers only the experience born of pain, and not to cry in public. Overall, Equi gives the impression that, whatever may happen—and much can happen in this multidimensional, shifting universe—she trusts the world. As one denizen of her poems tells the poet:
“it doesn’t take a genie
to see you’re destined
for fun
and as awful as it sounds”
you must learn to make the best of it.”
—“You Go to My Head”
As the poet herself says in “I Interview Elaine Equi on the Four Elements”
A: The earth has always supported me in all my endeavors. I trust it.
So the reader of Ripple Effect, guided by the poet through imagination, improvisation, and the avant, also trusts enough to willingly follow Equi’s edgy lead.
January 7, 2025
a handful of really nice ones but overall felt too jaded, I found myself disagreeing with a lot of her sentiments
October 26, 2011
*Edit* Upon further reflection of these poems, I'm going to have to bump it down a star (to 3).
Yeah, and I thought I was conflicted with Sheeler; this one was a doozy. I love: how Equi can cut to the quick, and cut quickly; I hate: how she uses “abstract minimalism”; I love: her disciplined diction; I hate: that thirty years of poetry is mashed together in a single overwhelming volume….
First off, the likes – diction that gets to the point. “Men in Camisoles,” “Lesbian Corn,” “Thesis Sentence,” “Ultra-Confessional,” and “Things to Do in the Bible” are all just spot on. Now only are they brilliant moments in poesy, but they offer some incredible insights into human character and understanding; I completely loved these pieces because they bespoke the epitome of poetry – short pieces both emotional and interesting in their content and form.
But then, there are the dislikes – “expansive minimalism.” “At the End of Summer,” Wang Wei’s Moon,” "Breakfast with Jerome,” “A Bend in the Light” (though I love the rhythm), and “Astor Piazzolla” are just “word ejaculations” that I cannot for the life of me understand; frankly, I hate them. I hate them because they are exactly what I consider to be examples of shitty poetry – that “I’m going to be mysterious and vague, but I’ll put these words in a concise form so it’ll look artsy” thing. So annoying.
Also, though a more minor point, is the amount of poetry in this collection. I think that breaks the reader down and prevents him/her from really appreciating some of these pieces… and for a book of poetry, I don’t like having a paper-weight in my hands.
But I think I’d still have to give this collection 4 stars; the good poetry is just too insightful… I can skip over the ones where I think “What the hell is going on?”.
Yeah, and I thought I was conflicted with Sheeler; this one was a doozy. I love: how Equi can cut to the quick, and cut quickly; I hate: how she uses “abstract minimalism”; I love: her disciplined diction; I hate: that thirty years of poetry is mashed together in a single overwhelming volume….
First off, the likes – diction that gets to the point. “Men in Camisoles,” “Lesbian Corn,” “Thesis Sentence,” “Ultra-Confessional,” and “Things to Do in the Bible” are all just spot on. Now only are they brilliant moments in poesy, but they offer some incredible insights into human character and understanding; I completely loved these pieces because they bespoke the epitome of poetry – short pieces both emotional and interesting in their content and form.
But then, there are the dislikes – “expansive minimalism.” “At the End of Summer,” Wang Wei’s Moon,” "Breakfast with Jerome,” “A Bend in the Light” (though I love the rhythm), and “Astor Piazzolla” are just “word ejaculations” that I cannot for the life of me understand; frankly, I hate them. I hate them because they are exactly what I consider to be examples of shitty poetry – that “I’m going to be mysterious and vague, but I’ll put these words in a concise form so it’ll look artsy” thing. So annoying.
Also, though a more minor point, is the amount of poetry in this collection. I think that breaks the reader down and prevents him/her from really appreciating some of these pieces… and for a book of poetry, I don’t like having a paper-weight in my hands.
But I think I’d still have to give this collection 4 stars; the good poetry is just too insightful… I can skip over the ones where I think “What the hell is going on?”.
April 28, 2011
Can't say I loved this book as I did not but I did love this bit:
Never finish everything on your to do list. It will look as if you have nothing better to do. ~Elaine Equi
Never finish everything on your to do list. It will look as if you have nothing better to do. ~Elaine Equi
April 22, 2017
This is a book I know I will go back to many times. Equi is incisive and funny. If you have writer's block, I recommend opening this book up and delighting in the simple joy of the poems.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews