One Thing — Then Another

by Claire Kelly

A poetic response to the tumult of a move across country

One Thing — Then Another is a collection of poetry divided into three unique sections: "East" explores the constraints of living under the poverty line in a have-not province. "And" is a long poem about moving in a U-Haul across the prairies during an ice storm. "West" considers what it means to live in the have-est of have provinces and trying to acclimate to that alongside an ever-present drought.

The poems are largely about contrast: east to west, flood to aridity, poverty to comfort, small town to city. Throughout this accessible, smart, and funny collection, there are many descriptions of apocalyptic upheaval to reflect the feelings of disruption that often accompany relocation.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

Published April 16, 2019

Reviews

[Bexx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley For providing me with a review copy.

I gave this a three out of three stars for this one. I enjoyed it while I was reading but it took me a while to finish it. That could have been just me but I’m not sure either. None of the poems in this collection stood out to me.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

#ARCNetgalley

This book of poetry had poems with which I really connected, and poems with which I did not. I enjoyed the way in which the poems were organized thematically. Several of the poems had pop culture references that I greatly enjoyed and made me smile. Additionally, there were several poems that I could envision working through with my students.
This was a lovely anthology to sit and read. I would read more poetry from this author.

[Junkyard Attic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Short-term Desires and Tick, Tick, Tick Went the Machine in the Bushes alone are worth the price of admission. Full disclosure: I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley.

[Prairie Fire Review of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally reviewed by Spenser Smith for Prairie Fire's Book Reviews Program. prairiefire.ca

Canada is so vast that Europe could almost fit inside it. With vastness comes variance—from wet climates to dry climates, from “have-not” provinces to “have” provinces. In her second poetry collection, One Thing — Then Another, Claire Kelly explores this variance like a travel writer interested not in popular activities or landmarks but the locals and their lives. The speaker in these poems, however, is not a tourist but a resident of Fredericton who eventually moves westward to Edmonton.

“East,” the first section, focuses on Fredericton and New Brunswick as a whole. The imagery is a mix of nature and industry: snow, elm trees, sea water “soused with disease,” scrapmen, and jalopies (30). Some of the most interesting sketches are those of people. In “Neighbours Are Wormholes,” an old lady proclaims she is at war with squirrels. In “Renters in pyjamas,” a “foreman with a grey handlebar / moustache” holds a radio to his ear “like he’s / waiting for his jackpot number / to be called, for his life to finally / be different:

A cottage on Kennebecasis,
an all-the-trimmings Ford F-250
with fast-action heated-seats
and rear-view mirrors that defrost
without being scraped. He answers
with a voice that’s mostly rasp.
An asbestos-coated cough, structurally unsound,
like the ceiling finally collapsing. (36)

After the speaker moves from Fredericton to Edmonton in the single-poem second section, the third and final section is “West.” It opens with “In the Land of Cinematic Drought,” a five-part prose poem influenced by desert-based movies such as Lawrence of Arabia and Mad Max: Fury Road. With stark Western imagery and inventive myth making, the poem echoes Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid and is an example of Kelly’s impressive poetic range. Below is a paragraph that encapsulates the East/West, wet/dry contrast present throughout the book:

Know what a lighthouse is? Neither did I. But Grandpa said where the water—great sheets of it—is jeopardous, people built towers so their ships wouldn’t gouge underneath. Hired men to spit light out the way we do spines from poorly shucked Cholla buds. All year looking out at grey water, grey sky. Rain dropping like what I can’t imagine. Weeks of rain! he said. (46)

Also present throughout is humour, both realist and absurd, with a witty millennial lens. Edmonton is a city of “souped-up” trucks with “wide-stanced, / manspreading axles” where turkeys ride the bus and thank the bus driver even after learning no one else practises such etiquette (62, 55). In “Spring Solstice Blues,” eagles send “tenuous / text messages” to humans, “their talons / tapping buttons / like surly DMV workers / in a bad movie” (27). And in “A Millennial’s Poem,” the speaker remembers a time when “a good deed per week / was enough to keep the world / on its Easy-Bake™ axis” (37).

While One Thing — Then Another has clean, dividing sections of “East” and “West,” its subjects are often varied and pleasantly surprising. Read this book and travel to places familiar and strange.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Thing — Then Another: Poems by Claire Kelly is the poet's second collection of poetry. She lives and writes in Edmonton, Alberta.

The poetry is of contrasts much like the title suggests, and the verse flows across the country of Canada from East to West. The collection opens with a winter scene, but Kelly sets the hook with "Cool Enough to Sink a Ship:"

I wanna be cool the way Patti Smith says
coool.

Smith references always make me look a little deeper. This is not just a passing reference but an inclusion of Smith's first cover "Hey, Joe" and continues with an undercurrent of Smith's style. At times I was anticipating a chorus of "Horses, horses, horses" as the poet moved west.  From there, the poetry contrasts life from observation of squirrels, memories of her father's stories, and all those things we pick up and carry through life:

So he keeps on hauling.
On his shoulders the straps
digging in, as he carries
another sack full of smithereens,
metallic forgottens,
un-talismans,
west and away,
for good and always.

The West comes through in a U-haul ride across the country and an intermission of poetry inspired from a wide range of movies from Them! to Mad Max. Early snow poems are now contrasted by the rain of the West. More than just contrasts, Kelly offers the reader a pleasing flow of poetry when she slips out of prose style and into verse:

More swift ones swoop beyond with gusty strides,
but in neutral disguise, wrinkleless black, navy, grey—
no flashy purple or sick sleet-green,
no totter to their posture, places to go,
colleagues to sway, Nimbostrategic-climber,
with paper in paperclips, highlighters beaconing
the points they’ll forecast.

Kelly's second collection brings the American reader a look into Canada and a look at one of Western Canada's rising poets.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't typically read much poetry, but Claire Kelly's collection of poems caught my eye. As someone who has moved back and forth across the country (in my case, the United States) a few times, I thought the poems would resonate with me. "One Thing -- Then Another" is a quick read, and a pretty good one. I did worry that I was missing some of the "art" of the poems because I read an e-copy of the book, which likely altered some of the sentence construction and spacing choices that can impact how one reads a poem. And at times, I thought Kelly relied a bit heavily on pop culture references (this was well done in "A Millennial's Poem", but heavy-handed in "Westward U-Haul Gothic") or other quotes and references. I thought the poems were best when evoking something on their own, instead of leaning on other works the reader is likely familiar with. I especially loved "How to Invoke the Patron Saint of Procrastination", and may print a copy to keep at my desk. "How Turkeys Became City-Dwellers in Edmonton" captured some of the mundane-yet-unique aspects of city life perfectly, with the perfect note of irreverence. In all, a nice change of pace for this older millennial who also dreams of the west from time to time.

[Jill Rey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book of poems.  Like many, I typically steer away from poetic reads and the genre as a whole.  I always fell for the stereotype that poems take a creative eye and require a deeper level of understanding that I can’t even pretend to possess.  However, I was pleasantly stunned by the richness of my experience with this collection. 
 
While the author wrote these poems for separate, individual publications, she creates a cohesive story by tying them together as she did in One Thing – Then Another.  The back-cover flap does a great job of aiding the reader in understanding the layout of this book: “East” being the constraints of living in poverty, “And” being the move to “West” which ultimately enraptures the richer demographic.  With this description I was able to follow along and enjoy the journey through Kelly’s words.
 
*Disclaimer: A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.  All opinions are my own.

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Also, this book fulfills Book Riot's 2019 Read Harder challenge task 24: a book of poetry published after 2014.

This collection of poetry, while cohesive, just didn't work well for me. The free verse felt more like choppy prose than poetry to my ear. I'm not enough of a poet to really explain the difference - and it may well just be a preference specific to me. Someone who's more into confessional poetry in a very free verse style may enjoy it more than I did.

[Critterbee❇ · Rating 2 out of 5]

*eARC Netgalley

[Aryssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my cup of tea.

[Nathaniel Darkish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this collection of poetry. Clever, funny, and filled with fresh images exploring interesting ideas.

[Prcs Rambharose · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this second collection of poems by the author..The collection poems our divided into 3 parts East..And..West.. The chapter of notes was interesting because her references give's the reader more insight to the subject as to why she wrote the poems..
These our Quirky and unusual ....but not really my taste in Poetry
She lives and writes In Edmonton Alberta
Thanks to ECW Press for providing me with this ARC.....

[Laurie Mackie]

One Thing –
Then Another
Claire Kelly
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
ECW Press

Modern, postmodern, experimental, traditional. None of the labels fit. Claire Kelly’s One Thing – Then Another tidbits the journey and upheaval in transplanting from a Canadian East to the West, those left behind and those of a new community. This second collection is an eclectic mixture referencing the mythic to the modern, the heroic to the mundane—Orpheus and Eurydice, punk-rocker Patti Smith, (having to note Smith’s nod to Jimi Hendrix), father/son first car driveway mechanics, and social media.

As Kelly combines a sometimes distant and classical past with an apocalyptic present, she alternately embraces and eschews traditional poetic forms and techniques—the palindrome, use of metre, enjambment, the dreaded “ly” and “ing”, the rhythm and flow of alliteration and assonance. Humourous, wry, homesick, filled with nuances not apparent on a first-read, One Thing – Then Another captures contrast—small town to city, ocean to prairie, what was, to what is. The end result is, to quote Kelly, “Anything could, and does happen. Eventually.”