The intimate music that plays
in AGAINST
WHAT LIGHT
by Sunnylyn Thibodeaux has
an effortless quality to it,
which is
to say it is composed
by finely crafted poems that
reflect a dailiness that not
many poets can capture.
“Capture” isn’t the right word,
since this fleeting
recognition
of being in the moment by its
nature requires that you don’t
hold
on too tightly to anything except the particular
awareness that choreographs
the dance of the mind
and the heart:
Today is Saturday, sky clouded over
Rain drops waiting for gravity to take them
Some leaps and pirouettes, one ear (one eye) on the daily news,
outside
and inside:
There are fragile things in the sky
All miners are above ground
They sent down the Virgin Mary with food
In AGAINST WHAT LIGHT it is the
quality of the attention that
matters, one syllable at a time.
There is a similar attention, a similar engagement with the moment, no
sooner here than gone, in YOUNG by
Christina Fisher. But this sequence of primarily
short poems has an entirely different effect.
Everyday another way
To fuck it up
Or make it rhyme
(from “Starter Set”)
Often lines break and twist the moment back upon itself, although
the sense of timing is impeccable:
Ya—kinda got that
Wishing I didn’t
Miss you
(from “Intense Aspects”)
Fisher has a great ear, and YOUNG
is a solid little collection of
tough tender poems “Not to be remembered and
forgot / But
lived through” (from “Rock Star”).
You should be able to get a copy of YOUNG from
Bird & Beckett in San
Francisco, since they published it.
AGAINST WHAT LIGHT was published by, and is available
from, ypolitapress.
