Refugia

Test Site Poetry Series

by Kyce Bello

Winner of the inaugural Interim 2018 Test Site Poetry Series Prize, Refugia is a bright and hopeful voice in the current conversation about climate change. Kyce Bello’s stunning debut ponders what it means to inhabit a particular place at a time of enormous disruption, witnessing a beloved landscape as it gives way to, as Bello writes, “something other and unknown, growing beyond us.” Ultimately an exploration of resilience, Refugia brings to life the author’s home ground in Northern New Mexico and carefully observes the seasons in parallel with personal cycles of renewal and loss. These vivid poems touch upon history, inheritance, drought, and most of all, trees—be they Western conifers succumbing to warming temperatures, ramshackle orchards along the Rio Grande, or family trees reaching simultaneously into the past and future.

Like any wilderness, Refugia creates a terrain that is grounded in image and yet many-layered and complex. These poems write us back into an ecological language of place crucial to our survival in this time of environmental crisis.

 

Genres: Poetry

ebook

Published September 1, 2019

Reviews

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has everything that I long for when I read poetry: some poems spoke to me so completely that I felt as if Bello lived bits of my life while others were so elusive that I felt I didn't fully know my own language. Bello's poems throughout Refugia are all tied together by their connection to the natural world (and Bello's obvious deep knowledge and appreciation for it) and their reckoning with family, time, and personal history. Bello's poems reveal her to be incredibly observant, very present in the world she lives in, and strikingly intelligent. I loved both the imagery throughout Refugia and the fact that I had to pause to look up some words, being rewarded with Greek mythology and literary devices along the way.

I found myself particularly fond of the following poems: Paper Trail, Equinox, In the Air Before Easter, Gazing on the Midmorning in an Expression of Solidarity, Field Notes, Rinconada, Our Names Unfurl Across Winter, and Refugia (8). However, I have the feeling that as I reread these poems, different ones will resonate with me as the contexts of my own life change.

This is modern poetry that makes you both think and feel. It would not be well-served compressed into an Instagram post and, in fact, would probably be best read in the middle of some quiet, wild place, straight out of the book. This poetry dares to demand attention and energy from the reader in a way that the poems of many modern and pop culture poets does not.

[Kelsey May · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Every day I wake up and wonder
if I should trouble myself with belief,

and if so, in what. The world green
and long-legged out the window,

runoff guttering to the creek."

"What we know of heat is the understory
of summer: waxy-leaved junipers
preserve moisture by not breathing.
Curious waves of light. July and the morning
is a retreat of lilac bushes, shock of gray
sticks between here and--"

"Refugia" by Kyce Bello is full of beautiful poems. They muse, they sprawl, they reclaim, and they advocate. The word "refugia" is plural for "refugium," which means a place where organisms can survive and endure unfavorable conditions, such as forest fires. These poems center on places and moments and are personal and familial. 5 ⭐s!

[Zee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: I received this as an ARC from working at Copperfish Books.

Refugia is an absolute work of art. I'm blown away by the crisp imagery, the powerful messages, and the austere simplicity of the poetry. Bello slices to the bone. If you're a poetry person, this is an absolute must-read. Wow.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

She says grief
is losing what we know of home,

while the land drifts
into a thousand small harbors,

and leaves us
to our short lives, our quick tempers.

[nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely collection. It weaves together landscapes and lineages, exploring mythologies and geographies of the self and one's relationship to place and people in gorgeous lyricality. All the while, it is deliberate in its consideration of our changing climate, managing to explore crises of the planet and the self. I especially loved the way domesticity and domestic memory are linked to these; the mythic explorations of the last section, in particular, were really grabbing, though I wasn't entirely sure why that wasn't as present in the first half (though maybe it was, and I'm sure I will find more threads to follow upon re-reading.)

[tonia peckover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refugia are habitats of retreat, where organisms and ecosystems go to try and survive. Kyce Bello takes that idea and explores what it means to be alive now, in a world that is changing, where much of what we love is dying. What does it mean to be a mother now? A child? How do you make plans to survive? How do you bear the weight of guilt? What will carry on? What will be left behind?

An absolutely beautiful and timely collection that has held my hand through all these early pandemic days and will go on and on with me through the years ahead.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

~1.5

[Rebekah Sturgill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me so homesick for Santa Fe.