Metamorphoses

by Evan Kennedy

One of Publishers Weekly 's Most Anticipated Poetry Books for Spring 2023
Metamorphoses springs from Ovid’s epic poem to explore the slipperiness of identity, its propensity for change and transience. In poems that shift registers from travelogue to elegy, from nature documentary to a simple record of the realities of daily life, Evan Kennedy focuses on transformation, personal and collective, in an empire in decline, in a world transfigured by ecological upheaval.
With a range of reference from Roman household Gods to San Francisco poetic titans to musical celebrities like Madonna and Bob Dylan, Metamorphoses confronts change as an inevitable molecular process.

Genres: Poetry

77 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2023

Reviews

[Aries Aster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literary queerness at its best. You should be honored that you can gaze upon it's pages.

[S P · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Knife
cut the fish
that drank
the water
that doused
the fire
that burned
the branch
that perched
the bird
that dodged
the hand
that drafted
lyric (1)

Tree of Life
In the tree of life I lose my way
upper branches tangled vines self-reflected creation
it’s not my intention to forget my origin
a sunbeam illuminates me
my descendants inferiors in branches below
my own face blooming smiling cawing
I was birthed raised from below
lifted onto a branch then fell into gravity’s biomass
The tree of life calls to me inscribes my lineage
ears enclose a sonic globe
beside me my contemporaries
close relations within touch while
I jump swing fly to others farther away I resemble less
Hold onto that image recite it
I wait for these branches to be canceled
entire history existent within me
my identity comprises life nothing more
my appearance is its alteration (5)

Tree of Life
In the tree of life I adorn each branch with speech and action
When unaccompanied I can't even adorn the gate of the tree's enclosure
that boundary of corpses and debris
When outside of life my adorning is transitory whisked away trampled and bled
I lift an ear or whatever is receptive
A cry is transcribed in my adorning
or a fire or flood visible through branches plumage foliage
Serve life, I intoned
I'm encouraged through speech gestures grunts looks
"What kind of a...?" "What reason for you...?" "Why do you look...?"
Voice reveals anatomy a form circulated by speech
I observe I experience but not at the same time
purification exhaustion rest apprehension defilement
anxiety concentration forgery doubt excitement union
I am a small gray fox carrying an infinitesimally small artifact
from the body of Ludwig Wittgenstein (38)

Leopards in Bombay
said, "We want to begin gain here, away from runaway glaciers, reef system doomsday, spray-painted polar bears, alligators in sewers, acidic oceans, colony collapse, the passenger pigeon, Tasmanian tiger, carbon supercharge, famine migration, wet markets, tear duct harvesting, microbe mega death, mass dolphin beaching, Asian termite, gypsy moth, stratospheric injection, artificial upwelling, wolves in Chernobyl, in situ burning, N95s, the dodo, the moa, sea forest heat waves, isotope gardens, invasive octopi, mission to Mars, Himalayan lilies, hermit crabs wearing Coke cans, starfish limb loss, skeletons in florescent parkas, solar system model in the stomach of a whale, spy robot meerkats, breathing sepulchers, the auk, the quagga, influenza in icebergs, mirrors in space, more migrants than subjects of Ancient Rome, evolution reset, plastic digestion, self-immolation, emerald elm beetle, zebra mussel, eighth continent theory, creepy-crawlers, shamans in condos, illegal clearances, everyday chaos, ruin reversion."
Then tipping over a clay pot of milk (a lot like our house cats), the leopards of Bombay took a deep breath and said, "
(But here our account breaks off.) (42)

Tree of Life
In the tree of life I revise my animal body I edit my poem
By unremarked changes creation moves around and within me
Orbits animate nature nature disbands retreated implodes so that
I name them when I make my first sound
In the tree of life my vantage will change by what species I speak as
my speech not existing for itself but as a branch toward being
a branch one keeps following until another is met or it breaks
dropping me extinct
those roots the inverse image of our branches
When will these distinctions be unneeded
I ask because I doubt I can specify "I" any longer
Regardless when I ask my question it will be
with the same elocution charm desire (69)

[Simón · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminded me a little of Anne Carson's queer treatments of mythology. But much more conversational. Always fun to have bay area landmarks and events referenced to give me a sense of geographic intimacy. I was inspired to write more conversational poems with biographical touchstones after reading this, which is totally unusual for me. I think the natural language and allusiveness appealed to me.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of poems, both intellectual and queerly sensual. References abound to diverse figures: Ovid, Kafka, Judy Garland, Basho, Shiva, and more. Kennedy effectively evokes the dizzying strangeness of the natural and cultural transformations that make up a sentient and curious existence.

[Gabriel Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC given by Edelweiss+ for Honest Review

My favorite poems are: "Life Propaganda", "One Eats While the Other Watches", and "Ascents of Orpheus."