Domain

by Meghan Maguire Dahn

Winner of the 2020 Burnside Review Press Book Award, selected by Jennifer Chang "An ecstatic skeptic, Meghan Maguire Dahn writes at the edges of knowledge and feeling to excavate a life out of the god-hungry, terrified, and terrifying landscape that is our contemporary moment. In poems of extraordinary vulnerability and bravery, she speaks of 'the hidden things,' of the 'abyss in the body,' in a 'state suspended by imperfect choices,' and with 'the stutter-green sorrow of our whole world.' To read Domain is to recognize such uncanny wisdom with relief and a little bit of fear, and so it is impossible not to put your faith in--to be touched by--Dahn's wondrous and bountiful perspicacity."--Jennifer Chang Poetry.

Genres: Poetry

89 pages, Unknown Binding

Published August 31, 2020

Reviews

[Simón · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the series, "The Conditions of [Blank]" because the treatise-tone of the title isn't at all delivered by the poem itself. My favorite was "The Conditions of Reason" which turns out to be more about senses. "You are will of the wisp," a folklore fire in peat bogs that haven't been documented by contemporary searchers. I loved the repetition about mud (maybe because i'm writing about mud rn): "Here is the window of scent: fill it with straw and cover it with mud./ Here is the window of flesh: submerge it in the mud. // Here is the window of sound: seal it with mud./ You are the hidden and the mud." So the person who keeps worms as pets is actually transformed into the substrate, a place with altered senses and seemingly no reason at all.

Lots of unexpected phraseology. Mostly untethered to biographical anecdote, which I appreciate.

[Jason Arias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astounding use of concision, language, emotion, and imagery.