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So Marvelously Far
Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce the publication of So Marvelously Far, an essential new poetry collection by Ohio's own Nick Gardner.
“This first book of poetry by Nick Gardner composed of 49 poems written in sonnet form brings the diurnal under the close and sustained scrutiny of a poetic sensibility that is at once broad and focused, a sensibility attuned to the brokenness of life while affirming the possibility of redemption. Gardner not only extracts meaning in such poems as ‘Dog Food’ which looks the blunted reality of opiate addiction clearly if not profoundly in the eye, or in ‘Grounding’ where the poetic sensibility seems to drift in an airy medium somewhere between longing and optimism while insisting on a vision that edges toward apocalypse, but also constructs meaning by drawing upon the desultory events, occurrences, and people of lived life, yoking them to insight and poignancy. Between the poles of angry sadness and hopeful anticipation, there are works like ‘Searching for Veins in Mr. Powell’s Cornfield’ which collapses several layers of meaning into one another. The images Gardner employs are oftentimes dark as they argue the harsh truth of the micro realities of drug addiction in small town America. Nonetheless, they also argue a guarded hope that poetically makes itself known as a shot across the bow of an oftentimes listing ship of life. The effect of So Marvelously Far is one of unsettling vision as well as one of poetic power. The work warns in ironic tones of the normalization of an increasingly dehumanized landscape, one redolent of the Avett Brothers in their song ‘Head Full of Doubt.’ More importantly, it is also a celebration of a remarkable and prescient poetic sensibility that will likely be around for some time.”
—Steven Joyce, Associate Professor of German & Comparative Literature, The Ohio State University; author of Transformations and Texts, The Apostate Djin, The Winds of Ilion, and A Sea of Other.
“This first book of poetry by Nick Gardner composed of 49 poems written in sonnet form brings the diurnal under the close and sustained scrutiny of a poetic sensibility that is at once broad and focused, a sensibility attuned to the brokenness of life while affirming the possibility of redemption. Gardner not only extracts meaning in such poems as ‘Dog Food’ which looks the blunted reality of opiate addiction clearly if not profoundly in the eye, or in ‘Grounding’ where the poetic sensibility seems to drift in an airy medium somewhere between longing and optimism while insisting on a vision that edges toward apocalypse, but also constructs meaning by drawing upon the desultory events, occurrences, and people of lived life, yoking them to insight and poignancy. Between the poles of angry sadness and hopeful anticipation, there are works like ‘Searching for Veins in Mr. Powell’s Cornfield’ which collapses several layers of meaning into one another. The images Gardner employs are oftentimes dark as they argue the harsh truth of the micro realities of drug addiction in small town America. Nonetheless, they also argue a guarded hope that poetically makes itself known as a shot across the bow of an oftentimes listing ship of life. The effect of So Marvelously Far is one of unsettling vision as well as one of poetic power. The work warns in ironic tones of the normalization of an increasingly dehumanized landscape, one redolent of the Avett Brothers in their song ‘Head Full of Doubt.’ More importantly, it is also a celebration of a remarkable and prescient poetic sensibility that will likely be around for some time.”
—Steven Joyce, Associate Professor of German & Comparative Literature, The Ohio State University; author of Transformations and Texts, The Apostate Djin, The Winds of Ilion, and A Sea of Other.
64 pages, Paperback
First published November 23, 2019
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About the author
Nick Gardner
1 book6 followersNick Gardner has his bachelor's degree in English from The Ohio State University and is currently enrolled in the MFA fiction writing program at Bowling Green State University. His chapbook Decomposed (2017) is published through Cabin Floor Esoterica. In his seventh year of recovery from opioid addiction, his research involves the current drug epidemic as well as alternative recovery methods. He has won awards in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry from The Ohio State University in Mansfield and performed readings of his work at Overdose Awareness Day as well as other local events. He lives in Mansfield, Ohio and Bowling Green, Ohio.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 19, 2019
Essential!
January 7, 2020
BOOK REVIEW: So Marvelously Far
Poet Nick Gardner sees effortless metaphors in the detritis of his hometown, as he states so eloquently in his poem, "Mansfield, Ohio"
As I read the braille of buildings, pausing
...
As a recovering addict, he made the connection between his town's revitalization and his own recovery, using urban imagery as well as references to classic mythology:
"Names I Will Never Call My Children"
...
Do we talk about a Poseidon drowned
in his bathtub? Do we mention Daedalus
squeezing paint into brown paper bags
and inhaling the esthers? Achilleus
on angel dust, and last I heard, in prison--
the dead are large and time is small.
...
##
He makes astute observations on how the places that we live and grow, shape who we are:
"Urban Exploration #4"
... a ribcage
of Ohio Brass; a collapsing spine
of Westinghouse; Rubber Stamp fibula.
I pull out a rusty mandible, stick
it in my own jawline. Then I speak.
Honestly, there were so many lines and stanzas I wanted to quote for this review, because they just seemed so perfect. But then, I would deprive future readers of the pleasure of discovering them for themselves.
Truly, a wonderful book.
Poet Nick Gardner sees effortless metaphors in the detritis of his hometown, as he states so eloquently in his poem, "Mansfield, Ohio"
As I read the braille of buildings, pausing
...
As a recovering addict, he made the connection between his town's revitalization and his own recovery, using urban imagery as well as references to classic mythology:
"Names I Will Never Call My Children"
...
Do we talk about a Poseidon drowned
in his bathtub? Do we mention Daedalus
squeezing paint into brown paper bags
and inhaling the esthers? Achilleus
on angel dust, and last I heard, in prison--
the dead are large and time is small.
...
##
He makes astute observations on how the places that we live and grow, shape who we are:
"Urban Exploration #4"
... a ribcage
of Ohio Brass; a collapsing spine
of Westinghouse; Rubber Stamp fibula.
I pull out a rusty mandible, stick
it in my own jawline. Then I speak.
Honestly, there were so many lines and stanzas I wanted to quote for this review, because they just seemed so perfect. But then, I would deprive future readers of the pleasure of discovering them for themselves.
Truly, a wonderful book.
April 1, 2020
So Marvelously Far is a collection of scars and crises, phantoms and grim fates narrowly escaped. In these pages, Gardner leads us through the tenuous landscape of the addict—from cornfields to parking lots to crumbling city streets—and takes us careening down blurred highways toward uncertain horizons and whatever transient grace awaits us there. Here, the poet illuminates shadows that few can know so intimately yet emerge from, perhaps scathed but still drawing breath. He shows us that the past will always finds its way back to us and that, like “a sewn stab wound or re-opened scar,” it will never cease its seeping, and that our hard-won second chances, should we be lucky enough to win them, are only one wrong move, one wrong ghost away from tragedy. This is a heartfelt knockout of a book and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
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April 2, 2020Gardner is a close friend so I'm going to avoid a star-rating here. Having been close to much of this for so long, reading early drafts, seeing shared memories in the poems, it's wonderful to see them polished and printed. Gardner has lived difficulty but has survived and turned that journey into hopeful words, looking back without glorifying mistakes, explaining without excusing.
March 6, 2020
These poems are a triumph, not just of the perseverance of rustbelt towns or recovery over drug addiction, but of finding a voice for personal tragedy that neither romanticizes nor pities. You return to these poems, mull them over, let them sit with you.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews