Weirding

by Lindsey Boldt

In WEIRDING, Lindsey Boldt invites the reader into bewilderment--to travel with her across states of consciousness and affective registers and search for a means of survival within an empire set to self-destruct mode. Inhabiting an array of guises and postures to act as both speaker and receiver, Boldt flips a switch and her body becomes a conduit, a site of "My hand is my antenna / and it works." Squirrels offer instruction, portals pop open, and the old gods command the poet, "Be on my back for it / Be on my back for / a wild thing to have." It is the gift of Boldt's poetry that this wildness--the transmutation of existential dread into futures worthy of the excessive ecstasies of Charli XCX--becomes ours through her invitation to join the circle of her "I had a magic connection / but needed you to / make it go." Poetry.

Genres: Poetry

99 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Zack]

Really interesting. Lots of feels, as playful and fun in some places as it is sad it other places. Nothing feels forced here. A unique book for sure...I don't know what to compare it to, Langston Hughes at times maybe?

some highlights...selected not super intentionally...just from flipping through the book for a few minutes right after i finished it:

"I want the poet to be an enthusiast for life
not for being a person"

"tossed by incessant wave
fucked into a scream
face slid & smeared sideways
vomiting so hard the face chomps backwards
all the pores pop wide at once
to hear the trees breathe"

"What is it
about my face
that says
lost lamb
please tell me what to do

all this time
I thought
my face
was saying
I'm glad you're
human right now
too"

"today i did as i liked
from end to end
& everyone i met did the same

pleasure being no longer a means of escape
or forgetting
& not something one does alone"