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csistek's review
4.0
Thank you to Coach House for the print galley to review!
This was a fascinating anthology. I quite liked how it was a look into the mind of someone not just experiencing the diagnosis of a brain tumor, but experiencing that diagnosis through the isolating ordeal that was the early stages of the pandemic. The best poems in my opinion were the "Slice-Selective Excitation (Brain Scans 1-5)" and the several-part set that is "There is Nothing More Invasive Than Snow" for this very reason. As stated in the book's notes, included in the former is a horizontal section taken from a brain occluded with a left-frontal lobe meningioma, which itself is actually pictured in the poem's fourth part. This anthology already bounces around between several different structures, but that, by far, is the most creative.
Not all of the poems were hits for me, however, but that's just how it is with something so deeply personal. A couple of them felt as though they were trying too hard to be abstract or deep, which left me lost or put-off. Admittedly, my favorite poem is the super short "Anniversary", because I'm simply a romantic and it was, well, very romantic and just so sweet. Aside from the two aforementioned poems, that was really the only one that made me put the book down and say, "Wow" from its impact. It was just refreshing to read something so simple and loving in so many sad and existential scenes.
Poetry has always been a means of viewing the inside world of a writer's mind and this is exactly that. If you don't mind the occasional depressing stanza (or entire poem, for that matter), then this is a really great read for those looking for something so inherently human.
This was a fascinating anthology. I quite liked how it was a look into the mind of someone not just experiencing the diagnosis of a brain tumor, but experiencing that diagnosis through the isolating ordeal that was the early stages of the pandemic. The best poems in my opinion were the "Slice-Selective Excitation (Brain Scans 1-5)" and the several-part set that is "There is Nothing More Invasive Than Snow" for this very reason. As stated in the book's notes, included in the former is a horizontal section taken from a brain occluded with a left-frontal lobe meningioma, which itself is actually pictured in the poem's fourth part. This anthology already bounces around between several different structures, but that, by far, is the most creative.
Not all of the poems were hits for me, however, but that's just how it is with something so deeply personal. A couple of them felt as though they were trying too hard to be abstract or deep, which left me lost or put-off. Admittedly, my favorite poem is the super short "Anniversary", because I'm simply a romantic and it was, well, very romantic and just so sweet. Aside from the two aforementioned poems, that was really the only one that made me put the book down and say, "Wow" from its impact. It was just refreshing to read something so simple and loving in so many sad and existential scenes.
Poetry has always been a means of viewing the inside world of a writer's mind and this is exactly that. If you don't mind the occasional depressing stanza (or entire poem, for that matter), then this is a really great read for those looking for something so inherently human.