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Congratulations, Rhododendrons
In her debut collection, Congratulations, Rhododendrons, award-winning poet Mary Germaine offers love poems to an insistently unlovely world.
Through poems that speak to plastic bags and drones as much as they admire roses and the moon, Germaine surfs the confluence of artificial and natural environments, technology, and our small but consequential feelings about them. At turns devotional and suspicious, these poems toe the boundaries of intimacy, responsibility, and reason.
In anxious times, anything can be taken as a sign; a crow, a talking coin, and a news report are all sources of information whose truth (or “fake-ness”) demand investigation. Germaine’s poems scroll from a shrine in Lourdes to an augmented-reality sandbox, from a mall filled with loitering ex–love interests to a fairy-tale ending where all the men turn out to be chairs. Funny, provocative, sly, and melancholic, Congratulations, Rhododendrons makes a case for the hope that every apparent disaster of social investment might in the end be redeemed as meaningful, genuine, or at least in some way helpful.
Through poems that speak to plastic bags and drones as much as they admire roses and the moon, Germaine surfs the confluence of artificial and natural environments, technology, and our small but consequential feelings about them. At turns devotional and suspicious, these poems toe the boundaries of intimacy, responsibility, and reason.
In anxious times, anything can be taken as a sign; a crow, a talking coin, and a news report are all sources of information whose truth (or “fake-ness”) demand investigation. Germaine’s poems scroll from a shrine in Lourdes to an augmented-reality sandbox, from a mall filled with loitering ex–love interests to a fairy-tale ending where all the men turn out to be chairs. Funny, provocative, sly, and melancholic, Congratulations, Rhododendrons makes a case for the hope that every apparent disaster of social investment might in the end be redeemed as meaningful, genuine, or at least in some way helpful.
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
Published April 6, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 5, 2023
Some poetry inspires more poetry, and this collection was one that kept sparking ideas for me. I enjoyed this collection quite a bit and I’m looking forward to what Germaine writes next.
June 8, 2021
Still trying to learn how to love poetry.
Loved the construction and emotion in. Felt a bit melancholic and atmospheric? Can’t put my finger on it but many of these poems made me feel a kind of way.
Loved the construction and emotion in. Felt a bit melancholic and atmospheric? Can’t put my finger on it but many of these poems made me feel a kind of way.
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August 5, 2022Reminder to self go reread this interview: https://miramichireader.ca/2022/03/th...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 1, 2022
I really enjoyed this book.
September 19, 2022
Poetry is usually hard for me to enjoy but this collection is clever and sarcastic without getting too pretentious. Double thumbs up
April 1, 2021
Brilliant! The poems demand a close reading and always deliver.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews