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Open Interval
Drawing upon intersections of astronomy and mathematics, history, literature, and lived experience, the poems in Open Interval locate the self in the interval between body and name.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 14, 2013
Open Interval is a complicated book that tackles many themes. Van Clief-Stefanon writes movingly about the pulsating stars that share her name, the astronomer that was a key figure in discovering them and a nude painting by Romare Bearden. She returns to these themes over and over again and each one gets treated in multiple poems.
However, just beneath the surface and often bubbling through is her experiences as a black woman in America. A woman who who has been unlucky in love. In Penelope she writes,
"The truth:
There are no suitors -:
I am a black woman alone
In a small town."
She later reveals in the poem that the neighbors mistake her for the only other black women they've known. "Not one/ Can pronounce/ my real name."
Van Clief Stafanon is obsessed with absence, space and falling through emptiness. In RR Lyrae: Matter she tells us "One day I realized I believe/ the space in everything is God: that force/ of present absence." She conclude this wonderful poem with the lines, "Sometimes the absences in us seem so profuse,/ I wonder we don't pass through wood."
We have to work for our revelations in Open Interval. The punctuation is enough to send you scurrying for E.E. Cummings and the numerous references to everything from 18th century astonomy to contemporary poets to Jimi Hendrix can get a little wearying. But listen to her language and you'll be rewarded. This is a poet putting everything on the page.
As she says in one of my favorite poems The Buffet Dream, "In the buffet dream this is what I want/ Everything I can swallow:/ What is hot -: What is cooked-: What is sweet-:/ What will fit on my plate-: What will drive me - from sleep/ with longing-: This is hunger:-/ before the first bite crosses my tongue."
There is something for everyone who loves poetry to feast on in this volume. Magnificent language, challanging metaphors and even a few stabs at sonnets.
However, just beneath the surface and often bubbling through is her experiences as a black woman in America. A woman who who has been unlucky in love. In Penelope she writes,
"The truth:
There are no suitors -:
I am a black woman alone
In a small town."
She later reveals in the poem that the neighbors mistake her for the only other black women they've known. "Not one/ Can pronounce/ my real name."
Van Clief Stafanon is obsessed with absence, space and falling through emptiness. In RR Lyrae: Matter she tells us "One day I realized I believe/ the space in everything is God: that force/ of present absence." She conclude this wonderful poem with the lines, "Sometimes the absences in us seem so profuse,/ I wonder we don't pass through wood."
We have to work for our revelations in Open Interval. The punctuation is enough to send you scurrying for E.E. Cummings and the numerous references to everything from 18th century astonomy to contemporary poets to Jimi Hendrix can get a little wearying. But listen to her language and you'll be rewarded. This is a poet putting everything on the page.
As she says in one of my favorite poems The Buffet Dream, "In the buffet dream this is what I want/ Everything I can swallow:/ What is hot -: What is cooked-: What is sweet-:/ What will fit on my plate-: What will drive me - from sleep/ with longing-: This is hunger:-/ before the first bite crosses my tongue."
There is something for everyone who loves poetry to feast on in this volume. Magnificent language, challanging metaphors and even a few stabs at sonnets.
May 7, 2018
I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. Very strong and unique poetic voice, in person even more so.
February 14, 2025
Incredible and inventive- she's doing some cool work with spacing, punctuation, and sound. There's so many individual poems to admire & they come together in a striking way.
"Nothing trusts/ how beautiful I can/ find almost/ anything"
"I remember how hard it was/ to pull myself back
in by degrees quickly/ like yanking up office blinds
like the sound that makes: accord-/ioned: a ripple"
"Nothing trusts/ how beautiful I can/ find almost/ anything"
"I remember how hard it was/ to pull myself back
in by degrees quickly/ like yanking up office blinds
like the sound that makes: accord-/ioned: a ripple"
October 4, 2021
4.5/5! Lyrae was my professor at Cornell, and every poem I read in this book resounded strongly with her voice. Sparse but rich language that coats your mind like honey. I really enjoyed this book of poems, and especially admired her ekphrastic poem!
June 28, 2023
love finishing a collection & sitting w an urgent desire to read pages and pages and pages about each and every poem in the book, want to live in these worlds and understand them inside&out. Whew! Gorgeous
January 21, 2021
beautiful collection. author has a lot of interesting thoughts distilled in these poems; certainly see myself revisiting them in the future.
July 6, 2022
Gorgeous poems. Interesting forms and playing with opening space. I'd love to hear her read them.
February 4, 2019
The poems play on her name, with race a consistent theme but not overwhelming, weighty and substantial.
April 1, 2011
Lovely, thoughtful poetry.
April 25, 2012
2009 finalist in The National Book Awards, the collection of poetry is juicy! One of my favorites: TRANSIT OF VENUS - sensuous, whew!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews