Radio Crackling, Radio Gone

by Lisa Olstein

Winner of the Hayden Carruth Award

Radio Crackling, Radio Gone is a debut collection of poetry that explores multiple logics of perception, association and interpretation. Intrigued by the edges where things begin to disappear, Olstein addresses her poems to those border zones of transformation where memory slides into imagination, wakefulness meets sleep, things possessed become lost.

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

About the author

Lisa Olstein was born and raised near Boston, Massachusetts. She earned a B.A. from Barnard College and an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, undertaking additional studies at the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts and Harvard Divinity School. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She is co-founder of the Juniper Initiative for Literary Arts and Action and a contributing editor of jubilat.

Reviews

[Olivia's Bookish Places & Spaces · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for a book report that I'm doing for my poetry class. Olstein is considered to be a master poet, however, I just don't agree with that statement. There was a lot of potential with this one as it is somewhat autobiographical and there's a unique story there. But, I found the writing to be dull, cliched and it read like something I would find on someone's tumblr page. The writing was also very dense and was not accessible to the average reader. My professors have told me that great poetry really resonates and connects with the reader - I found this to be untrue with her. I felt like Olstein was putting up a barrier between her and the reader and much of the vocabulary and language used just came off as pretentious more than eloquent.

Overall, just give this a pass as there are better poets out there.

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I will soon be leaving her generous, nourishing, sustaining proximity, I've been rereading all of Lisa's collections. They are all perfect, without one false word or note. This time around, I was especially floored by the beauty of this passage:

“How many times will one person imagine light
shining through one small east-facing window?
More than I would have imagined.
Each day something makes us walk out
to the sandbars and later say I walked out
to the sandbars, I put my foot down on a shore.”- “Jupiter Moon May Hold Hidden Sea”

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

from Radio Crackling, Radio Gone by Lisa Olstein:

One by One Examples Line up by the Kitchen Window


Sounds we can identify without moving:
smokestack in evening, skirt, hair.

The street wrapped in light like a ribbon.
Sounds we must lift our heads to see:

smokestack in evening, skirt, hair.
Sometimes this is what keeps a man from drowning:

the belief that he will not drown.
Sometimes it doesn't matter what he believes.

Here in the half-light, I see two of everything.
I know the distance between two points is greatest.

Whistle for yes. Hum for no.
I'll take silence to mean anything is possible.

[Phoebe Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites from this collection include:
Regarding Days
Through a Half-opened Door
Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
What Language Are They Speaking?
Man Feeding Bear an Ear of Corn
In the Meantime
If the Wind Shifts
Small Woman with Pictograph and Thumbnail Sketch
3/4 Ballad
Jupiter Moon May Hold Hidden Sea

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an impressive first book of poetry, one of the best first books in the genre I've seen.

[Sarah Hurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

These poems and I got off to a rough start. Olstein’s poetry is very obscure and illusive, perhaps a bit above my head. However, the more I read, the more I loved her. Her writing evokes deep emotions; what I first perceived to be obscurity was perhaps a mastery of nuance.

I suggest reading the entire book in one sitting then returning to the beginning.

[Daniel Penrod · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally heard of Lisa Olstein after hearing Jeffrey Foucault's collaboration with her on his Cold Satellite album. In retrospect, I wish I had been introduced in reverse. Her work reverberates so much more when you put it to your own music. Each piece will have you reflecting for days!

[Harry Palacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a word that silence bestows upon horses and gardens where the otherworld is made to cast its bright shadow of sempiternal weight… emotion running hot in a town that does not forget although it seems to pass us by

[Molly]

2023 Sealey Challenge 2/31

[Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some lovely imagery, but I mostly felt lost. Most of these poems left me feeling isolated and confused.

[Jamey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Effete, young, white, boring. Many of the poems made only minimal sense, and had an arbitrary, wispy quality that felt less like some liberated flowing whimsy and more like a person making what they think art should look like. There seems to be a lyrical gift in there somewhere, but these poems don't go anywhere, as far as I( can tell. I'm sorry but this was an MFA-driven dud, for me.

[Biscuits · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olstein writes beautiful poems to sing to your broken modern devices