Late Summer Ode

by Olena Kalytiak Davis

Davis’s poems are empowering and vulnerable, honest and embodied.

In Late Summer Ode, Olena Kalytiak Davis writes from a heightened state of ambivalence, perched between past and present tensions. With Chekovian humor and metered pathos, from a garden in Anchorage not pining for Brooklyn, these poems “self -protest, -process, -recede.” Davis is a conductor of sound and meaning, precise to the syllable: a commanding talent in contemporary poetry.

Genres: Poetry

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 2022

About the author

American poet Olena Kalytiak Davis was born in 1963. She is the author of two poetry collections: 'And Her Soul Out Of Nothing' and 'Shattered Sonnets, Love Cards, And Other Off-And-Back Handed Importunities.'

Her first book won the Brittingham Prize. Her other honors include a a 1996 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award in poetry, and a 2004 Guggenheim Fellowship in poetry.

Her poems have been published in literary journals and magazines including AGNI, Field, Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, Poetry Northwest, Post Road Magazine and in anthologies including 'Best American Poetry 1995' and 'Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century.'

She is a first-generation Ukrainian-American, and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She has since lived in Chicago, Lviv, Paris, Prague, San Francisco and the Yup'ik community of Bethel, Alaska, and she currently lives in Anchorage, Alaska.

She was educated at Wayne State University, University of Michigan Law School, and Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is also a contributing editor at 'The Alaska Quarterly Review.'

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading OKD always feels like a puzzle game. Instructions:

1. Find the part of the poem (or collection) that makes sense right away.
2. Identify the theme and meaning of the piece.
3. Start unraveling the rest.
4. Feel.

I hope I circle back to this whole collection in 50 years. I loved it all, and I know when I have lived a full life, it will devastate me all the more.

[Madison Sides]

The day I become a sonnets girl is the day that OKD stops using the word lack

[sacredheart · Rating 1 out of 5]

i am just right now
sad with living
with (not) having
have lived

[Muchomorek ☾ · Rating 2 out of 5]

And to think I anticipated this read so much, saving it specifically for the end of summer, only to end up not liking it at all ?? 🥲 No maybe that's a bit harsh, I'm still glad I got to read poetry written by an author of Ukrainian descent, and I enjoyed the few nods to Slavic literature. But overall the collection read like very edgy contemporary American poetry, and I realize that's a genre I don't really gravitate towards anymore....

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

This really did not click for me, but I appreciated quite a few of the sonnets.

[Jack Malik · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection. There weren’t many pomes I like but defo many lines (and Davis’ ending… gaddem!)

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most contemporary poetry, I found 1/3 - 1/2 of this just amazing and the remainder fully impenetrable. Loved the sonnets, loved the Chekovian pandemic story, and generally was into the vibe.

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Day 18 of #TheSealeyChallenge 2023. Late Summer Ode by Olena Kalytiak Davis published by Copper Canyon Press.

@SealeyChallenge @copper_canyon_press @CopperCanyonPrs #OlenaKalytiakDavis

#thesealeychallenge2023 #sealeychallenge #poetry

Oh my goodness what a romp! ILots of zingers that hit hard.

Some of my favorite moments:

I was a minor mother: only two, and sometimes, I was mean to them.

Youth took this ship. Youth hung on every fucking sail.

In the new nausea of nostalgia: will have come to this.

And I have betrayed others, but not quite this soundly, this steadily, this well.

[Lara]

I had seen this collection in a bookstore but opted to get it from the library. It had peeked my interest mostly because it has been awhile since I had read a poetry collection and it is written by a Ukrainian author. Didn't connect much to this group of work and the repetition of lines was not something I enjoyed.

[Bandit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very intense energy behind these poems. And the prose piece at the end. Not sure I quite liked it. Great vocabulary and some interesting choices. But then, I’m not really a poetry expert. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Read quickly.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

The third book by Olena Kalytiak Davis I have read; also her latest. Just too inward for me. There are some creative uses of words, and a rather caffeinated exuberance, but in the end I found this collection difficult to appreciate.

[Lisa Keuss · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This is now it is; will not be."

[Jewell isabelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 - 3 ⭐️ not bad by any means - just nothing I fully connected with or considered fantastic

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sonnets, especially, rocked me -- with their big and dancey music and their stare right into me.
Love this book for how it pushes, plays, and grieves. (Love the final story).

[Shawn Aebi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often reads like a Shakespearean play which it is likely modeled. Clever word puzzles embedded in reflective, moody pieces - more about discovery than loss.

[Olivia Case · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly what I needed. Gave me what Violent Bent Backwards Over the Grass didn’t

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/4 stars

[Victoria Tang · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the poems in the second third of the collection much more than the whole last third. I have the feeling that it all went over my head though.