Displacement: The Bakeless Prize-Winning Poetry Collection on Loss, Impermanence, and Uprooting from Marriage and Home

by Leslie Harrison

Leslie Harrison’s collection marks the arrival of an assured new poetic voice. Chosen as the winner of the 2008 Bakeless Prize in poetry by guest judge Eavan Boland, Displacement addresses questions of place and, of course, displacement—from marriage and home—and explores the aftershocks of being uprooted physically and emotionally. Paired with Harrison’s natural, keen sense of rhythm, the central themes of impermanence and loss are heightened by the poems’ impeccable structure.

In a masterful display of formal precision, the collection is filled with "engaging contradictions," says Eavan Boland. In her introduction, Boland writes, "There is a poignancy, poise, and a presence about this book and about its traffic between secrecy and disclosure that allows it to have an unusual force, and a true grip on its reader. This is a real lyric journey; and the reader will take it, too."

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Clover Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

i found this one randomly under “poetry” on hoopla, where i check out books free with a library card. it had one review at five stars. my rating is currently the second, and matched the original proclaiming a perfect score.

what a hidden gem. these poems are breathtaking and have such a masterful composition—so intricately layered, so much to be discovered from line to line. there is a strong emphasis on geography and travel, the significance of moments as ties to place. musical like a tongue twister (lots of excellent wordplay) that feels so satisfying to “get” as a reader. certainly a collection that deserves to be read out loud. i don’t usually resonate with one-word titles, but there were many, of which seemed entirely appropriate and even supplemental to the pieces—the body poetry’s dynamic luminance is enhanced by simplistic titling.

i make it through poetry collections fairly quickly, but this work is made to be savored. the intricacies of each poem demand extra attention, but the “work” of locking in to learn what is buried within is greatly rewarded. not one poem did not have at least a portion highlighted, but there are two that i just had to mark in their entirety because they are perfect™️:

“Dusting” and
“Love—As Memory”.
outstanding.

and moments such as:

“Overhead, the pigeons / slap the air with a sound like trying / to make a newborn breathe.”
“…I garden, not for the growing, / but for the broken and the dead / from which they come.” wowee. what?!

other favorite poems:
“Firefly,” “How It Started,” “The Spider,” “Autobiography—As A Vase” and “Tea.”

this collection deserves its flowers!! where are they?!
an obvious and jovially proclaimed ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read

[AJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and lyrical. At the same time sad and melancholic with sparkles of hope.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think my problem is—

that I want to live on earth as I do
in my head. Days when I have
no skin and the exchange rages
until, like mist rising from the lake,
the boundaries grow indistinct
in a haze of molecular fire.

And those days I lean
like paintings gilt-framed in language
against the walls of all the days
I cannot find a hammer, hanger, ruler.
And is does not matter—
the walls are stone and may not be adorned.

- - -

Love—as memory

Any river carries the shapes of all the bodies
only so long as the bodies remain.

Remove flesh from the river, let the divers
recover—and the river heals itself,

refuses to imagine the next one
who jumps or slips or is thrown—

In this way is a book like love: it will hold
the memory of teh bodies—be infused, absolute.

Burn them, send the ash to fall from the sky
and still—

Ash arrives at the river and the river
makes way. The ash tastes of fire

and the river wonders about burning—
this thing it can see, but never have, never be.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy focus on divorce in this book happens to be something I don't really relate to and the poems sometimes seem needlessly obtuse. I enjoyed The Maps on pgae 52 and Instructions to the Realtor on page 68.

[Leela Srinivasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It just means a lot to me

[Virg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that works a steady, careful hand upon its reader, building a story that is extraordinary in its insistence that our attention remain on sharp but ordinary details. We are moved through the thickest stuff of being—longing, restlessness, loves that carry both sweet possibility and disaster—in language so exquisite that it echoes long after reading. As hopelessly narrative as I am, I can’t ignore Harrison's gift for lyric, the way her syntax swings in its lines. They are lines that make you feel everything, both what’s articulable and what isn’t. And in poem after poem, as the losses accumulate and the answerless questions mount, I am left awestruck by the unmistakable confidence with which she lands each poem’s ending. This is one of my favorite poems from the book:


Dusting

This morning a dusting of snow this morning
twittering flakes flakes clumping convocations
of them on the lawn sun winter pale sideways
without force lacking a certain substance if he died
where he lives no one would think to tell me
not right away my father gone into the long
raveling of sidereal years was gone into coffin
three days before someone remembered he had
children somewhere and like the milky way
finally arriving overhead called me and absence
was made flesh and brought low into ground
though none of his children know where
this thin snow comes fragments of the cold
cold stars and somewhere he wakes or does not
and in this white dusting he like the starlight the snow
stubborn resisting dissolution continues for now
to shine

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

For something that I just decided to try reading at the bookstore, I was blown away by this book. Harrison possesses the rare ability to make astonish her readers in just one stanza. All of her poems are simplistic, but mean more while saying little. Though this is a short collection, it has left me with numerous new ideas to ponder on while I search for more of Leslie Harrison's poems.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A smartly obsessive book. Harrison mines winter, landscape, and complicated love for all they're worth while maintaining perfect control over her images. The series of travelogue poems is a particular favorite.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific first book--unsentimental treatment of loss--language makes emotion somehow transparent in compelling ways. Interesting, even fun, to read.

I love it--definitely read!

[Signe · Rating 3 out of 5]

a jenga tower of poems!

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry is not my forte, but when it's done this well, even I can recognize it for what it is. These poems linger like dust and flow like rivers, thanks to Harrison's scary good command of her craft.