On Speaking Terms

by Connie Wanek

“Connie Wanek . . . is superb, mature [and] a master of mood and language.”—St. Paul Pioneer Press

“No poet I know, with the exception of Jane Kenyon, is as able to discover the magic and depth in ordinary, day-to-day life and to artfully render that vision for the reader.”—Louis Jenkins

Connie Wanek’s third book of poems, On Speaking Terms, is amusing, tender, and surprising. Herself a librarian in Duluth, Minnesota, Wanek’s poems emerge from everyday objects—Scrabble, garlic, lipstick, hawkweed—and the landscapes, waterscapes, and severe winters of the upper Midwest. Readers will shove off in canoes, buckle on skis, set fishing nets in Lake Superior, and spend time in the real world of the imagination. Lit by startling metaphors, Wanek’s work has been justly compared to Wislawa Szymborska’s for its wry wit and spare “Eastern European” sensibility.

. . . Afterwards it was Eve who made
the first snowman, her second sin, and she laughed
as she rolled up the wet white carpet
and lifted the wee head into place.
“And God causeth the sun to melt her labors,
for He was a jealous God.”

Connie Wanek is the author of two books of poems. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota, where she is a public librarian and renovates old houses with her husband. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including The Atlantic Monthly and Poetry. In 2006 she was named a Witter Bynner Fellow in Poetry from the Library of Congress.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Connie Wanke was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In 1989 she moved with her family to Duluth, Minnesota where she now lives.

Her work appeared in Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Quarterly West, Poetry East, Prairie Schooner, Missouri Review.

Wanek has published three books of poetry, and served as co-editor of the comprehensive historical anthology of Minnesota women poets, called To Sing Along the Way (New Rivers Press, 2006). Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate of the United States (2004–2006), named her a Witter Bynner Fellow of the Library of Congress for 2006.

Reviews

[James Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd never read Wanek before, and I had a two-edged experience with On Speaking Terms. I thought it relatively light verse, not a meal to stick to your ribs at all. But then, the opening poem of Part Three, "A Random Gust from the North," is another kind of animal altogether. That poem had a depth I'd not noticed before, and soon I began to find more ideas and lines to appreciate. They remained fairly simple poems, simple observations of conditions as fact, declarations of truths past and present. But I began to understand she was showing me extraordinary ways of seeing things we've always known yet not known until she shifts it slightly to reveal a hidden aspect, like one of those cards we played with as children on which different images appeared depending on how you move the card. It's an idea as old as poetry. As I finished the book I realized Wanek's poems are kinda like Pablo Neruda's Odes to Common Things. They take simple objects or activities and allow us to see them as if new. Monopoly becomes a game we've never played, we can believe the transcendence of the pumpkin, and we learn that popcorn rewards in ways we'd never suspected. When I finished the book I realized I'd read something polished and lovely, like those stones rolled and rounded in riverbeds that are pleasing to hold in the hand. I didn't want to put it down. I felt like Wanek's pumpkin, that I'd ended the day full of light, so I started the book again.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanek is a good one to go to when your mind has slowed down and you're in the mood to focus on the ripples in Lake Superior.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard several of Wanek's poems on Garrison Keilor's The Writers Almanac and I really wanted to read more of her poetry. On Speaking Terms did not disappoint. She writes about everyday life in the most direct and beautiful way. Her poems are relatable, at times humorous, and poignant. This excerpt from Scrabble has stayed with me and gosh, it is so true!

I need a t to give me time
a p and I'd have help.
It's the story of my life,
rearranging assets and coming up shor.

I am eager to read more of her work. If you are looking for a very readable poet, try Connie Wanek... she won't disappoint!

[Thaddeus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Connie Wanek is a diamond hidden in the rough. Her mastery of words, her ability to conjure such clear images is breath-taking. Every poem is a perfect bite-size meal, but also full of complexities. The penultimate poem, ‘Leftovers’, is as good of an example of her quiet power. It is unsurprising that Ted Kooser thinks so highly of her. Please go and find a copy of this wonderful book!

[Nicholas Trandahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Connie Wanek. The quiet voice in the garden or on the lake shore, in the late winter breeze that so suddenly falls into spring.
I am thankful for her, and her perfect poetry.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really hate saying a lot of negative things about a collection of poetry because it really is a thankless job in a lot of ways and there certainly are enough detractors of modern verse out there. So, when I feel negatively about a poetry collection, I tend to go with my mother's advice - if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

But I feel like I have to get a few negatives out of the way first - to clear the air, so to speak.

Let me start with a related story (in a strange way). When I was in the final stages of high school, I began submitting my poetry to magazines. As you can imagine, most editors replied with form rejections. I did get a couple of acceptances in that first batch, which was awesome, but one of the responses I most clearly remember was from the one editor who replied in-depth about each poem I had sent to her 'zine. Of one of my poems, she wrote that the poem was "clever" but that she had thought of the metaphor in that way before and if she had that meant that others had and that it had most likely already been published.

Now, I'm not one of those "nothing is new under the sun" sort of readers, but I have to say that when I read this collection, I had a very strong "been there, done that" sort of feeling about the verse presented.

As my main example, I call upon "The Death of my Father," easily my favorite poem in the collection. I felt that it was a strong, emotionally impactful poem that really affected me until the last two lines:

I once was found but now I'm lost.
I could see, but now I'm blind.

In a way, it is a fitting (and even understated) way to end the poem, but who among us hasn't twisted these lyrics to their own end in this way? Indeed, I have a poem in my notebooks from when I was in High school that ended the exact same way. (to be fair, the wording was "now am lost'" so there is a bit of a difference...) By saying this, I am in no way trying to sound egotistical - I just believe that it has to have been done before. It doesn't feel like a fresh take on the feeling.

Much of the collection feels this way to me. In no way would I call it bad poetry. There is an excellent understated wordsmith here at work. I just believe that there is a difference between simple and simplistic and this book tends much too much towards the latter for me - enough so that I was shocked at some of the publication credits sited in the acknowledgements section. Though there is an underlying talent that is impossible to deny, there just wasn't anything here that I felt hadn't been written in a much stronger way by another poet.

All of this sounds a bit more negative than I intended. I enjoyed reading this collection. I just couldn't shake the thoughts that I have detailed above.

(I also feel that it needs to be said that I haven't read anything by this poet before. I would be intrigued to compare this to her other work as I did feel that there was an original voice at work underneath many of these pieces.)

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew I was going to like Connie Wanek from the moment I heard her poem "Directions" on NPR's Writer's Almanac. I liked her even more when I found out she was from Duluth, and I bought a couple of her collections at a local bookstore when we were in MN this summer. After finishing this volume, I have to say she has quickly become one of my favorite poets. There are very few misses in this collection. Her style reminds me of Ted Kooser--she has the same quiet, personal outlook on the world. From a canoe on the lake to walking to work, her subjects are small, but she is able to step back and capture why they matter. I can't wait to read more from her.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in this book after reading the blurb, which promised poems emerging from everyday objects (which I usually like) and compared her work to Wislawa Szymborska. So, although it was a pleasant read, it was a bit disappointing. The poems about everyday objects really didn't give much of a new spin on those objects (except for two of the poems I really liked in the collection "Rags" and "Comb"). The poem I enjoyed the most was called "Tracks in the Snow" about a man who skis in a graveyard. The handling of the end of that poem was really lovely.

Overall, it was okay, but nothing in it blew me away.

[Ida]

This book is full of poetry I wish I'd written.

[Cathryn Cofell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.