Hush

by Professor David St John

Poems that tell of love, desire, parents, children, ecstasy, and death mark the debut of a powerful new American lyric voice

Genres: Poetry

62 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[nkp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my fave but rounding down a 3.5. The first half was good, the back half took a nosedive. Reminds me of dusting off 2-3 year old poems to meet the word count for my thesis.

[Michelle]

Like Li-Young Lee’s Rose, there’s a tenderness and fragility to this short book of twenty-five poems, and yet, the expansive voice and deep imagery are so powerful. One is struck by how intimate this author is with the smallest, most delicate life around him, how he bares his heart to loss, memory, the page, how symbol and surrealism in the poems infuse and illuminate the author’s vivid, surprising truths about a world that seems familiar one moment and entirely foreign, almost dreamt, in the next.

[Tristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Hush, although not quite as much as The Auroras: New Poems. This is St. John's first collection and it is very good but it does bear the marks of a first collection--the sound is not as developed in Hush as in his relatively recent The Auroras. These poems are fluid, dark, and fast, but they are also teetering between regularity and working straightforwardness and impossible fantasy. I tend to prefer the ones with more fantasy, although I like to be able to make out the strands of both in various poems.
I thought his longer poems were more effective, generally speaking, the opportunity to act over the course of a multi-section poem affords St. John the ability to really develop a structure and a location for the surreal to manifest within, instead of trying to secure that all at once, like in "Alone":

The slow wheel in my chest
turning, I sit at the card table,
and trace your hair in the blue
dust of my saucer. The rib of the moon
sails on.

That is not to say that these shorter pieces (of which that was a single stanza) don't work, they do, but the loping gait of poems like "Four O'Clock In Summer: Hope" is better, I found, at submerging you and forcing you to accept the oddity of the gorgeous poetic fantasies that St. John paints in his best poems:

A shirt flags in the wind. Like a small boy peeing
off the back of a rowboat, we know a life dissolving
in its past, and a future passing back into its life.
We build a bridge of waves over the waves & drift on.
Already we see a rider turning his horse to face
the breakers & a girl who has captured the sunlight

in a cage of quartz walking home to her grey father.

My favorite poems were "Alone," "Orange" "For Lerida" ("her lover / in a blond raincoat / slipping thin, quiet fingers into her / rings"), "Four O'Clock In Summer: Hope", "Six/Nine/Forty-Four", "Slow Dance", and "You", although the whole collection was lovely. Hush is vibrant and readable and the poems make good use of verbal ingenuity and surprising images to catch the attention. St. John reminds me of Larry Levis (unsurprisingly, since they were friends) but also of Brigit Pegeen Kelly--insistent and earnest, but not content with the world as it is, reaching into the odd, the sideways, and the impossible to make space for themselves.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, this one was good. Picked it up because my copy has a photo of the poet on the cover. I was like lmao. Lol. Who fucking does that lol. But man, I think he’s earned the right to

[Boxhuman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hush by David St. John

First off, I loved the simple cover with the fantastic font/handwriting. It really set the mood. The book was, indeed, hushed – being slow and enduring. I love the impact he can mask in such simple words in his short, uncluttered poems. I actually think he works best with repetition (for me to say that means something) and in the poem, “Alone”, it would have been well-placed. He creates a perfect atmosphere, even if he doesn’t use the same mood, setting, or idea.

“This” quietly opened the book, thirsting for understanding and searching almost blindly for the answers. The rhythm and reiteration felt natural. “Naming the Unborn” was emotional and delicate, having powerful metaphors like “small bean of flesh” and “her blood drums from his mouth”. “The Empty Dance Hall” was filled with echoes and stillness that he pulled off almost effortlessly. “Coming Home” wasn’t as strong as “Naming…”, but I liked the splash of realism and grittiness of “unbuttoning her jacket/stitched with milky poppies, and her work pants//smeared with diesel grease and sperm”. That’s the stuff of writing prompts. “Orange” was a bit dizzying and murky until the end pushed it all together to make it ripe and delicious (pun attack!). The very vivid poem “For Georg Trakl” did not, surprisingly, over-use (or misuse) the colour blue.

In “Six/Nine/Forty-four”, we get the great somber lines, “the slow clack of blood, & a soft,/black window in his gut. No poem, & drawings/in his pocket.” “Six/Nine/Forty-four” had compelling reoccurring images, especially the window and the long walk home. “Slow Dance” would have worked better if shortened, I think. Although, I enjoyed the Tolstoy/Anna element, especially since I was reading Anna at the time and can appreciate the poem more. I liked, “It’s the relief/A rain enters in a diary, left open under the sky.” “Iris” lost as and I never got a clear picture of the motive behind it.

The title poem wasn’t long, which is rare. It was tight and tense. We returned to the feeling and situation of “Naming…” and I liked the Chippewa woman (and spiritual) reference and the way the female and the male mourn the death of their child.

“Dolls” was absolutely fantastic and really needs more examination in the future (writes a short note to “future self”). I think it was his strongest poem and unfortunately hard to take any lines out of context because it was so overlapping. “Gin” was so nitty-gritty noir-detective feel, which was excellent, and also very interwoven. “Scarves” was cold and utterly painful (in a good way?) with examples like, “How you compose me, drunk/Of winter, & we survive”, and “a feather of blood broke along/Your lips.”

“Wedding Preparations in the Country” was disappointing and sounded more like a blank page exercise. While it was alright, I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth.

Bottomline: Very good! I bought it for $1, which is insanity since it was so lovely and sad. I like his style (especially in the end, when it gets looser) and his voice.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

maybe my all time favorite book of poetry. re-reading it. read it first as an undergrad and it's still great lo these many years later. my favorite poems in here are "alone" and "the dance hall."

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the first contemporary books of poetry I ever read (in around 1987), and I'm still struck by how well it demonstrates what great poetry can do.

[Julia Bucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

"--I hold up two pictures. Look
A fourth Xmas, at my father's feet. My face
a moon above the blue dark of a sailor's suit.
The blond curls like a pin-up girl's
across my forehead. Now this: the slick,
leather-shouldered pilots standing by the hard
wheels of a B-17. And these sons
putting their faces to pillows as cold
as a father's leather chest."