Comma

by Jennifer Still

It was a long silence that brought me to the erasure poem. Not mine, but my brother's, during his many months in a coma. I came across a notebook of his—a pocketsized, handwritten field guide of prairie grasses. I read it for companionship, signs of consciousness, attention. I read it for the rhythms of his still and distant hand…. I was reading a taxonomy of silique drifted into soliloquy. >

Between 2008 and 2014, while her brother was in a lengthy coma, award-winning poet Jennifer Still engaged in a private collaboration with the art and wonder that was his handwritten field guide of prairie grasses. The the stunning works of poetry and imagery encapsulated in Comma.

Still was moved by an overarching impulse of grief to create these poems. In the brittle lexicon of botany, and in the hum of the machines keeping her brother alive, she developed a hands-on method of composition that plays with the possibilities of what can be 'read' on a page. Comma enacts a state of transformation and flux, all in an effort to portray the embodiment of grief and regeneration that can be achieved in the physical breakdown and reassembly of lyric poetic forms.

Genres: Poetry

132 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2017

Reviews

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gobstopper

In the small mirror where my red face floats
I can still see it, the egg on the sidewalk that makes me
look up to the hole in the throat. Behind every word
there's a socket in the night where our dove flew out.
What is private? In the rearview where all our red faces
float. Here, between colours, we have been stopped
for such a long time. All the engines are cooing
while she is being hit from the inside. Her pale arms
chop. I can see right through to the tiny Everlasting
How long will we be stuck here between
There's nowhere to go and I'm dying?



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[Danie Botha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems made by hand

Jennifer Still’s collection of erasure poems, Comma, is a unique celebration of the human condition in extremis. Her poems, Jennifer says, were made, not written. In minimalistic fashion, she bares the vulnerability, the helplessness, and hopelessness of man in the abyss of unconsciousness, but also in a deft manner shows how resilience, how love and courage are all woven together. “What is brave?” The reader is compelled, time and time again, to pause and reflect, then read on. When stripped from the certainty of life, the most elementary and simple things start to matter: a single breath, the blink of an eye, the twitch of a hand muscle, the discoveries made in deciphering notes scribbled across a pencil drawing of prairie grass.

[Lynn Tait · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was not sure if I'd like this book, though I am a fan of erasure poems and have written the odd one myself. Some I did find a little disjointed for my personal taste. the 1st section of illustrated erasures (but only that 1st section) did nothing for me; the rest of the illustrations and erasures I found rewarding. There was a section with what seems to be aphorisms, quotes and discussions on the point of what she was trying to accomplish that I found for me - made it feel like I was getting to know Still as a person and poet. Did not have any sense of pretentiousness in her ideas or explanations. Had to warm up to this book but it ended up providing plenty of heat, and captured my heart.