Two Open Doors in a Field

by Sophie Klahr

The poems of Two Open Doors in a Field are constructed through deliberate limitations, restlessly exploring place, desire, and spirituality. A profusion of sonnets rises from a single Sophie Klahr’s experience of driving thousands of miles alone while listening to the radio, where unexpected landscapes make listening to the unexpected more acute. Accompanied by the radio, Klahr’s experience of land is transformed by listening, and conversely, the body of the radio is sometimes lost to the body of the land. The love story at the core of this work, Klahr’s bond with Nebraska, becomes the engine of this travelogue. However far the poems range beyond Nebraska, they are tethered to an environment of work and creation, a place of dirt beneath the nails where one can see every star and feel, acutely, the complexity of connection.

Genres: Poetry

92 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2023

About the author

Sophie Klahr is the author of Two Open Doors in a Field (Backwaters Press), Meet Me Here at Dawn (YesYes Books) and ______ Versus Recovery (Pilot Books). She is the co-author of There is Only One Ghost in the World (Fiction Collective 2, 2023) alongside Corey Zeller. Her poetry appears in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, and other publications.

Reviews

[Momo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 out of 5 stars

I really like some poems from this collection and really didn't care for others. I enjoyed the first third of this poetry collection the most though so about halfway through this did drag a bit for me. The formatting I personally enjoyed but I know some people might be annoyed by it. My favorite poem was "driving through Oregon, listening to the radio" and my favorite bit was the last half: "...This violence makes us feel at home together, these miles 'til Bend, a needle threading blue within the tall pines- a stitched horizon. The disappearing hem of sky. Trauma is never clean. Thunder begins. Then snow. The story lost to static in the woods.". This is a poetry book I would consider adding to my physical collection but it's not one I am saving the publishing date for personally.

Disclaimer: I received a digital arc copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Gabriel Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC given by NetGalley for Honest Review

A lovely collection of travel poems documenting Klahr's long drives from 2015 to 2018. This collection boasts both longform and shortform poetry/prose which breaks up the flow in a fresh way. I'm personally a fan of the sonnets. While I usually will go feral over rich and abundant metaphor, some of the reading gets bogged down in the flowery imagery. The continuous use of the radio gives the collection a sort of soundtrack which I find charming and find it helps connect the readers to the experiences Klahr writes about.

My favorite poems are: "Parked, Nebraska", "Parked, Utah", and "Pass With Care."

[hmc · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have ever traveled alone anywhere, you know there can be a particular bittersweetness to it. The expectation of the destination, mixed with the humdrum moments of traveling, and all the things you see along the way that no one will ever know about, unless you tell them. In this stunning and expansive book of poetry, Sophie Klahr endeavors to do just that: to render the things she’s seen with the keen interest and aching distance of someone just passing through. She embraces all the contradictions and mysteries of traveling alone, both literally and metaphorically, and in the process produces images with such specificity and scope that they took my breath away several times as I read. She doesn’t shy away from how beautiful and lonely and strange it can be; a motel parking lot, Utah canyons, and farmhouse fields are filled with angels, the intricacies of insect life, and snatches of radio songs to form a moving patchwork that is at different moments both tender and wry. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in modern poetry, craft (her sonnets are a masterclass!), travel, the surreal, tenderness, love, nature, America, etc. “Perhaps you have become my passenger / by reading”, she says in the very last sonnet. It certainly felt that way, and what a journey.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many great lines:

we must be // quiet to hear the universe

memory rips me / from the land

the suicide's blink

In Russian, there are two words for the verb / Die. One for animals, one for people.

The motel pool still and blue as a pill

In each scar, a story-- / pale comma of a slipped saw

There is clockwork to a fire

Where the walls seem to luff in the wind

On TV, people are playing a game, / clapping when the holes in the world are named

Nebraska talked in its sleep



Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sophie Klahr's poetry collection Two Open Doors in a Field is constructed through a series of drives through Nebraska and other states. The poems are simple but evocative: they make you feel like you're sitting next to Klahr in the passenger seat as she reflect on life and the places she visits. Certain favorites songs play on the radio. Certain moments prompt memories of quotes, books, and other media. I really like the sensibility of this collection, how Klahr weaves all her elements together to mimic what a road trip feels like. I'm not sure all of the poems work for me individually; I did really enjoy the middle section in which a man and woman have an relationship in Nebraska. They are very sparse, reflective poems, which isn't always my favorite. I usually prefer more confessional poetry, but Klahr is a nice change of pace. If you're looking for some travelogue poems, these are pretty good. Thank you to the University of Nebraska Press for sending me a copy of Two Open Doors in a Field to review!

[Omi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked:
I do like the beautiful imagery and some of the metaphors and the feeling of nostalgia, as well as the home-y vibe it had. I also liked the concept of the road trips and the radio.

Disliked:
For the most part, I didn't feel anything reading the passages which really affected my mood over the book but I did highlight lines that were beautiful. It wasn't anything that resonated with me and some I didn't understand completely. So overall the biggest dislike for me that stood out was not feeling moved by most or all of the passages.

Favorite lines:
"When you said it will always be uneven between us, I heard a new word for a field impossible to measure"

"Love is short , forgetting is so long."

"I told him: This was once a sea. As were you, he said."

"Everything dies and that's how it should be, isn't it? Too early gone, or too long suffering—it's what we claim loss to be, but even loss is the wrong word. For what is there, is and what is not, we still live with."

Overall Thoughts:
I usually love poetry books and I really did want to like this since the poems do give off a home-y vibe, but this wasn't for me. It did have a few great passages and some really beautiful lines, but that was really it, since it wasn't anything magnificent.

Recommendation:
I dislike not being able to recommend a book to anyone as I do believe that some could love this book so if you like the summary you could give it go, but personally speaking, it feels like a book that you can pass.

[Ella]

Two Open Doors in a Field is a fine work, however, not too memorable. Sophie Klahr is obviously very talented, but this collection seems to be missing something. While this work was not for me, I am sure it will stick for someone else-- particularly those with an affliction for travel and road trips.

Would love to see how the poet's craft develops in future works.

[Sura Shealey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

I enjoyed reading this, and I loved the format of the different trips and radio stations. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Alice isn’t dead. However, aside from a few of the poems, I didn’t really feel anything one way or another about the poems.

Thank you to Netgalley!

[kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up

[Divs · Rating 5 out of 5]

So atmospheric and lyrical

[Emma Wu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a huge poetry reader but it's been months since I've read this and it still echoes in my mind. Art Farm holds such a precious place in my heart. This text helped put words to that affection.