Mythos and T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland

Part 1: Mythos definitions

I’ve been thinking about the human tendency toward mythos-building lately, the way we form ideas about who we are, how we form a mythos about people as we get to know them, how we are raised in a mythos about our society and grow up presented with each mythos of the roles within society that we can to step into. I’m going to talk about this in relation to a recent experience with T.S. Eliot’s "The Wasteland," but I first want to start with some definitions (feel free to skip them and jump down to Part 2).

From the Mirriam-Webster online dictionary the following meanings apply to my thinking about mythos, which is the word’s singular form. The second definition of mythos is "a pattern of beliefs expressing often symbolically the characteristic or prevalent attitudes in a group or culture."

Mirriam-Webster redirects the first meaning of Mythos to the definition of myth. Here is the second definition of Myth:

2a. a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone, especially: one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society

2b. an unfounded or false notion

2b is highly relevant since so much of any mythos we personally construct is unfounded or false simply because we don’t know the whole truth of a situation until we’ve taken a dive into the middle of it–or it starts to break down of its own accord.

I’m going to add to these definitions a statement about personal mythology by Dr. David Feinstein and Dr. Stanley Krippner: "A personal myth is a constellation of beliefs, feelings, images, and rules—operating largely outside of conscious awareness—that interprets sensations, constructs new explanations, and directs behavior. ...Personal myths speak to the broad concerns of identity (Who am I?), direction (Where am I going?), and purpose (Why am I going there?). For an internal system of images, narratives, and emotions to be called a personal myth, it must address at least one of the core concerns of human existence."

I don’t know who first said that one of our human characteristics is that of meaning-making but when I did an internet search I found a quote on Goodreads by Bessel van der Kolk, psychiatrist, researcher and author who focuses on response to trauma, who says “Because humans are meaning-making creatures, we have a tendency to create some sort of image or story.”

I have not read the work of any of those men, though I may have listened to a talk by van der Kolk on Youtube at some point. I bring all this up as a way to share how I’m currently finding my way into T.S. Eliot’s "The Wasteland."

Part 2: My thoughts on mythos

I think we are constantly creating and maintaining stories. Mythoi (the plural of mythos), can perhaps be thought of as a web of stories that solidifies. And I think we construct them both consciously and unconsciously. For example, who we think a person is may shift and change for a while as we have more experiences with them and learn more about them. Over time we form a more consistent impression of them, beliefs about their character and some knowledge of their history. Some mythoi we create are minor, some are the core of our identity or comprise our understanding of the world around us. Having what we consider a well-developed mythos, that being a mythos we feel we have enough information and experience to be correct about, having that well-developed mythos disrupted may elicit anything from a shrug or personal collapse. For example if you think your boss is in a happy marriage and then you find out that a divorce is on the horizon, most of the time that won’t have a strong impact on your working relationship or your career, let alone your own identity. If you find out your boss has murdered someone and is going to prison, that may have you rethinking every interaction you ever had with him or her. But the impact is exponentially greater if we ourselves think we’re in a happy marriage and are suddenly asked for a divorce or even worse, if we discover that our spouse has been a serial killer on the side. 

We also develop what we consider reasonable expectations for the future based on the mythoi we’ve developed. We expect certain things of ourselves, the people we’re close to, and the world around us. But life often doesn’t have a lot of respect for our reasonable expectations and when our expectations are crushed it can cause real, jarring, emotional and psychological impact. Some of us are more adaptable and resilient than others, but even hardy people can be devastated. I suspect T.S. Eliot was not so adaptable or resilient.

Part 3: My approach to "The Wasteland" 

Upon this particular rereading of  T.S. Eliot’s "The Wasteland," which is a poem I’ve never felt much connection to, I was once again having difficulty making any sense of Eliot's use of collage construction. I resorted to slowing way, way down, making a copy of the poem and parsing every place it seemed to me there was a shift in perspective and jotting a note about the change.

What I surmise from my parsing of the poem, thoughts on mythos, and a list of sources provided below, was that Eliot was someone who’d been hit with a number of mythos disrupting strikes in a limited amount of time. Any hope of more travel in Europe before its being despoiled by war was erased, interrupting what appears to me to be a desire to establish himself as a cosmopolitan intellectual, having a foot in many cultural traditions. His marriage wasn’t going well, which could result in multiple hits to one’s personal and social mythoi–who she was, who he was with her, what marriage was and what it would continue to be with her. And of course there were the inhumane horrors of WWI and the mourning from the loss of life, which he may not have directly experienced but was certainly watching others deal with. To me his “Unreal City” is the mythos of the city. National mythoi were being adjusted as well during the course of the war. His work life took him into banking for a time, which, however it may have suited him in some ways, surely was not his initially intended trajectory in life. All of this happened within about five years and in the aftermath of his inhaling of a lot of mythologies within his formal education.

The collage of "The Wasteland" goes back and forth from everyday observations to myths. As he writes near the end of "The Wasteland," “These fragments are a shore against my ruins.” I don’t know if the ancient myths are a bulwark against the collapsing of personal expectations (that is, his crumbling mythoi) or whether they’re dramatic smokescreens in which to embed personal turmoil. Leaning on the ancient myths certainly makes the personal more grandiose. At least that’s the way I see it. Perhaps if you’re T.S. Eliot, bringing in Tristan and Isolde, Tiresias and Coriolanus (of those that come to mind as I type) is simply a form of “misery loves company.” They may have become part of his personal mythos and thus natural for him to include. I admit I often feel, when reading "The Wasteland," like a hapless speck aswirl in his personal mythos. It could be he thought if he brought in the ancient myths he was somehow making his personal crisis more universal. It didn’t have that effect on me.

The Wasteland will never become part of my personal mythos but as a result of my excursion into it, I’ve begun to see the parts more clearly and the pressures that may have contributed to it. I can definitely identify with Eliot somewhat because some of my own fundamental mythoi have been disrupted through time, mainly due to health issues, so I know how there can be a domino effect of rethinking assumptions even with only one mythos taking a hit. I can also identify with the emotional impact being delayed, as seems to happen in this poem.

As always after expressing something that is new (to me) and not the sort of thing I normally talk about, I suspect I may not have added any clarity about this poem and may even have cast more mists on a work already inclined toward smoke and mirrors. I may have stated the obvious that only now became obvious to me. I have no idea, but those are my thoughts at present on Eliot’s The Wasteland.

Part 4: Resources

My recent background on the poem consisted of videos by Dr. Adam Walker of the Youtube channel with the same name:

https://youtu.be/PPdbXOYVcSU?si=yYERbq-rk6I0CTy7

https://youtu.be/ogGcm_0YpzE?si=XEmxLDpBIwbz3GGr

https://youtu.be/VoT3fRCrnF4?si=QJ4oTukEP2r3j_Md

I also watched the videos by Thomas at the Youtube channel Books, Art, Crime and Popular Culture and had some personal exchanges with him. He has established a TS Eliot playlist.

I also found a simple T.S. Eliot timeline and a webpage with translations for the foreign language sections. I was lucky enough to have a volume of his poetry that had his notes on "The Wasteland" included but the only one I found particularly helpful was him pinpointing the section of the poem featuring Tiresias as the most important part of the poem.

A genuine poetry book haul

I recently bought ten books of poetry. So what makes this book purchase a "genuine" book haul--as opposed to other bouts of book purchasing? The spontaneity. Usually my book purchases are very premeditated. However, Amazon seems to have learned my price point and recently started showing me books costing $10 to $12. Much of this bait is on my wish list. However, it had also caught on that I've been purchasing award winners over the past year and so is showing me other award winners or finalists--so I got four of those, along with the latest book of poetry by Gordon Henry. I was content. But the next day I was on Amazon to do a book review and there were more at my price point, most of which I've been interested in for years and so I got another five. Ten books arrived in three envelopes on the same day. So I'm currently enjoying the excitement of exploration before the potential letdown. Here's a little about why I got each book and my guess as to whether I'll like it.

Spirit Matters by Gordon Henry (2022)

Gordon Henry is a Native American author. I was first introduced to him through his fiction book The Light People, which I found fascinating. He published a book of poetry in 2008 that I discovered around 2020 enjoyed, so I was excited to see he had another book of poetry out. Since I've never not liked a book by him, I'm hopeful I'll enjoy this one.

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay (2015)

Ross Gay is a bit of an unknown quantity to me. I wouldn't be surprised if I've read him in more recent anthologies but his poetry never stood out to me. I bought this one as an award winner and based on hearing Pat at the Youtube channel Book Chat with Pat read from his work. So this will be a bit of a test to see if he's someone whose poetry I'll like.

The Tradition by Jericho Brown (2019)

I've enjoyed Jericho Brown's poetry in anthologies so I'm hoping to like this book. It's an award winner.

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery (first released 1975)

This was a risky purchase. I don't particularly like Ashbery's poetry, but the title of this book keeps appearing before my eyes for whatever reason, so I decided to take the plunge.

Life on Mars by Tracy K Smith (2011)

My attitude toward Tracy Smith is neutral. I find the subject matter of this book interesting. I tend to enjoy poetry with science themes and this is an elegy to her father, who was a scientist involved with the Hubble space telescope. I'm hoping to like this but am not sure.

Frank: Sonnets by Diane Seuss (2021)

I was impressed by Seuss's recent book Modern Poetry and so this one, which won her more than one award, jumped to the top of my interest list. I'll be surprised if I don't like this one at least on some level.

Obit by Victoria Chang (2020)

The poetry of Chang's I've seen in anthologies has put her on my radar. I've wanted to read more of her work for a few years. I'm not sure whether I'll like a full book of it or not. This one is a bit odd. Just doing a rapid flip through the book I see that the poems are formatted as columns of text, like an obituary in a newspaper. That makes this one of the more unusual books among this set in terms of the theme being mirrored in the form.  

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky (2019)

This book and poet is another one that keeps coming before my eyes. I have no idea whether I'll like this book or his poetics. I've had some trouble embracing war-based poetry recently. This was written before any of the current conflicts began but I wonder how his brand of political poetry will hit me.

Time and Materials by Robert Hass (2008)

I respect Robert Hass but I've never thought to seek out a full volume of his work. I know this is one of his more highly thought of books. It won two awards. I expect to enjoy it. The question is whether I'll like it enough to read more of his books.

Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Gluck (2015)

Unlike so many, I am not a fan of Louise Gluck's poetry. So this book is similar to the Ashbery book in terms of risk. I got it with low expectations. This was the cheapest book I got at only $8 and change--and it's thin. It was a National Book Award winner. I figure if I'm going to give Louise Gluck another try, this is it.

So that's my poetry book haul, all but one of which were published in the 21st Century. Though it's impossible to be "caught up" on the large amount of poetry being published, I'm finally beginning to feel that I've sampled a decent amount of 21st Century poetry after having largely ignored it for 20 years. 

Catch-up and moving forward in 2025

Recently Read (and reviewed on Goodreads):

Selfwolf by Mark Halliday

A Far Rockaway of the Heart by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lighthead by Terrance Hayes

The Re-echo Club by Carolyn Wells

Recent DNFs:

Thresherphobe by Mark Halliday

Jab by Mark Halliday

Phantom Pain Wings by Kim Hyesoon

What I'm reading now:

Selected Poems by Kenneth Fearing

Sing Doun the Mune by Helen Adam (on Everand)

What is on the docket for reading the rest of the year (books I own waiting to be read):

Finish Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Collected Theodore Roethke

Collected Howard Nemerov

Collected Frank O'hara

Half Light by Frank Bidart

New European Poets

And if there's any time left:

Collected Thomas Hardy

Collected Robert Penn Warren

Other intended reading:

Once a month a book from the local library.

Regularly reading from books I've saved on Everand (at least 2 per month). (Everand is a great way to explore books and poets without having to buy a bunch of books.)

Netgalley selectively.

Eventually I'd like to start re-reading some books I've had for years and want to see if they're still worth keeping, but I think I won't start that until the second half of the year and it may be more of a focus next year.

Where will I be on the internet and what will I be doing where?

Youtube: 
I tried recording in my car but it's about to get too hot for that here in Tennessee. My brain and voice also are not very in sync these days requiring a lot of editing. So it's likely I'll only be doing monthly or occasional updates (like this one) on youtube until my elderly cat, who is prone to bouts of yowling, passes. I'm about to try using pheromones. We'll see if that helps. But for now I'm assuming Youtube videos will be rare. I may yet do the Snob-o-meter tag since I've been thinking about that already.

Goodreads:
This is where I'll be posting my book reviews. I may also be creating poetry-related lists. I've already started a poetry summer reading list and have ideas for others. It's also a good place to keep track of how much I've read (17 books of poetry finished and reviewed and 13 partially read and partially reviewed).

Reddit:
I may start a group (aka subreddit) for sharing poems I've enjoyed and why I particularly like them. It will be a public group so that others can also share poems they enjoy--but they must include a reason that they liked the poem. There's a group on reddit that is people just posting poems without saying anything about them at all. I've discovered that non-poetry-readers who are wanting to get into poetry need help understanding what people like about poems, why they read them and like them. My hope would be that a group like this would help them see the different way people enjoy poems.

Blog:
My blog will mainly be these kinds of reflections or roundups of my poetry reading practice. I may return to sharing poems of others along with highlighting 1-3 elements of them or using the poetry survey technique I was using on Youtube, but my blog is a drop in the ocean so I doubt anyone would see them so it's not really satisfying the spirit of sharing. I don't get anything out of that sort of analysis for its own sake, so I wouldn't be doing it for me.

Whyp:
On Whyp I can share simple recordings of poetry without any analysis (as Youtube requires). The idea behind Whyp is that it doesn't get cataloged by search engines. I currently only use it for what I call my sleep poetry recordings, which are recorded at stage whisper or whisper level to be played during the night to help me get to sleep and stay asleep. I would really like to add to these recordings but there's the same yowling cat issue that prevents me from recording for Youtube.

The other personal poetry project:

While I'm forced to give up time-consuming social media activities, I can return to memorizing poems, which is very difficult for me--and so I tend to avoid it. But I do enjoy it and creates a different relationship with each poem memorized.

Black Mestiza by Yael Valencia Aldana ~ Thinking About Accessibility

People who enjoy the poetry of Sandra Cisneros and Maya Angelou will enjoy this book by Yael Valencia Aldana because of its accessibility and its celebration of heritage.

Most of the poems were an expression of the long lines of heritage we contain and not allowing anyone (including ourselves) to deny them. As the title indicates, sometimes we’re quite a complicated mix. This book is about relationships, especially ties to women, although there are a couple of poems to men and a couple about her son. There are tributes to Angela Davis, Zora Neal Hurston, and Margaret Atwood, acknowledgement of literary ancestors as well as genetic ones.

This is highly accessible poetry that invites one to think about one’s own connections and influences: relations, mentors, icons. This would make a great summer reading book. There is some experimentation but it remains very readable throughout. While it deals with some difficult topics, it doesn’t dwell on them. There is loss but it is expressed more as remembrance and spiritual connection than as grief. Overall, I found this an enjoyable, interesting, and quick read. It was a bit of summer for me reading it in winter.

Poetry Hierarchies

As I mentioned at the start, people who enjoy the poetry of Sandra Cisneros and Maya Angelou will likely enjoy this. This association with Cisneros and Angelou, and being asked to give this book a star rating on a couple of platforms, forced me to mull poetry hierarchies and snobbery. 

I am a poetry snob of a middling sort--but definitely a snob. I think anyone who spends a lot of time sorting through lots of anything they enjoy and thinking about what works for them, what they consider quality and what others consider quality and how that differs, especially as a result of training and experience, locate themselves on a spectrum for that interest. No one wants to be on the bottom for any length of time unless it's something you don't really care about.

Categorizing Black Mestiza challenges the borders of my snobbery and makes me question, not for the first time, why there are boundaries that are hierarchical instead of a matter of kind, each kind having its own form of excellence. But, like anything else, especially regarding art, poetry doesn't fit nicely into categories, regardless of how one frames the category.

So when I say the poetry of Aldana is similar to Cisneros and Angelou, I mean that it is accessible and has a similar focus on racial and cultural identity and empowerment. There's nothing wrong with that. It also implies the possibility of widespread interest. But that's false. From a cursory look at Angelou's poetry books currently on Amazon, only one was published by a small press, that being Virago. The others were published by Ballantine, Random House, and Bantam (x2). Cisneros's books have all been published by Vintage. Those are mainstream publishers--because Angelou and Cisneros made their names in prose writing. Aldana's book is published by the University of Kentucky, which is to say it has been given an academic stamp of approval and thus has a reputation to uphold in that regard and also that its chances of reaching a wide audience are virtually nil. It's a matter of economics. Mainstream publishers have more money to put into their books and author promotion.

There's also a way in which comparing Aldana to Cisneros and Angelou isn't complimentary. Neither Angelou nor Cisneros were embraced academically, Cisneros more than Angelou, but neither for their poetry. Does that mean their poetry is "bad"? What does it mean that scholars ignore your poetry and think it of no interest? It means that it lacks subtlety, intellectual depth, beauty and sophistication of diction, novelty or innovation of form, original thought. But there's a lot of respected, canonical poetry and non-canonical poetry by canonical poets that lacks those things and pander instead to delight. "Whenas in silks my Julia goes...." 

I think Cisneros and Angelou are less trying to impress than they are to connect. They're not playing with an artistic medium so much as using it to hold what they want to express, not just to express but to broadcast. That is its own skill and should be valued. Angelou in particular strikes me as someone who broadcasts. And thank heavens she did. She made the world a richer place. Her poems "And Still I Rise" and "Phenomenal Woman" are justly iconic.

The truth is nothing in Black Mestiza is going to become a wildly famous poem, either academically or within the larger populace. She shows more formal experimentation than either Cisneros or Angelou and yet I don't think the experimentation would put off a novice to reading poetry. So Aldana's poetry simultaneously shows more stylistic sophistication than the other two women's while having less punch.

So I have to accept the discomfort of saying what I believe to be true, that readers of Cisneros and Angelou will enjoy Black Mestiza. It's the best way I can target readers who would enjoy this book. Yet I'm aware of the ways it's a compliment and not a compliment.

Rating Black Mestiza

How do I rate a book which dangles between more academic poetry and poetry just wanting to present an experience and connect? Angelou and Cisneros for me have been 3 start poets (I have yet to read Cisneros's latest book). Black Mestiza lacks the beauty of language or the depth of many of my 4 star ratings. In the end, I gave her marks for a pleasant and interesting read and gave her the 4 star rating. Did I "lower my standards" by giving her a 4 star rating? If I can give a book of Gwendolyn Brooks' poetry 4 stars and Black Mestiza 4 stars, it certainly proves that I'm conflicted about my 4 star ratings. And perhaps I expect too much of 5 star ratings. 

For years I avoided the rating of poetry books for just this reason. I'm a middling poetry snob, which means there are things all over the spectrum that I like. And yet now that I am forcing myself to rate books I see how lazy I've been about defining for myself what I consider good. And I'm having to face the difference between what I consider good and what is recommendable. Book ratings on platforms is less as an indicator of high quality than a indicator of whether I think others will enjoy a book--whether I would recommend it. These two things are frequently at odds. I was engrossed in To 2040 by Jorie Graham. I gave it 5 stars. Would I recommend it to most people? No. With some books, there is no conflict between what I consider the consider high quality and high recommendability. 

Maybe I need to create a rubric for myself for books I find difficult to rate. What would it include?

How broadly relatable is the book?

How accessible is the book?

What is the quality of the writing (according to me)? <<what does this even mean to me?

What is the level of my affinity with either the poetics or the topics?

Did the book keep me engaged from beginning to end?

I'll have to give it more thought. Are there more qualities to consider? Should some of these have possible negative values? Certainly I should weight some of these categories according to how important they are to me. 

Does it ultimately matter whether I give a book an "accurate" (according to me) star rating? No. Not at all. But thinking about it, and perhaps coming up with a rubric, will hopefully result in less teeth-grinding.

And why do I want to participate in this stifling star rating stuff anyway? Because it's a way to indicate to the world that poetry is being read and some people like it. As I've been going through the prize-nominated books, I've been shocked sometimes with how little interest there is in them on Amazon, which is still one of the most accessible places to find lots of poetry. You can be long or short listed for a poetry prize and still be ignored. What chance does Black Mestiza have? I want people to know someone saw it, someone read it, and it was an enjoyable book

Thoughts on The Gathering of Bastards by Romeo Oriogun

This is largely a book of northwest Africa. Oriogun is from Nigeria and this book is a reckoning with his country and that region's history and his place in it--and outside of it since he chose to leave. But it is also a book of longing for resolution so that he can feel at home again in the first place he thought of as home, as well as a self-examination of why he continues to choose living elsewhere despite the toll it takes on his sense of belonging and acceptance, both of which are basic human needs. People who have a love-hate relationship with their homeland will be able to relate to the recurring attraction and retraction expressed within this book.

In the first part of the book, we start from the west coast of North Africa and travel into the Sahara. This is a fascinating journey through a part of Africa through the eyes of an African. But it is not a tour. Oriogun is thinking his way through this territory and what it means to him, its history and its present. As someone who lives in the U.S. and has never traveled to Africa, Africa equals animal life to me. I have a National Geographic view of it. The view Oriogun provides largely omits animals. His themes are water and earth, that which moves through and that which stays. Water, especially, is a strong theme throughout the book. 

Oriogun writes beautifully and that is what kept me reading. 

Here are a few examples of poems in this book that were available on the internet. They're not my favorites but they give you a feel for his writing.

https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/oriogun-20/

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/157939/flyway

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/157938/walking-along-harvard-square

The book is in three parts: Departure, Remembrance, and Wanderer. I would recommend reading Departure as a whole in sequence because it does have a traveling narrative arc. However, Remembrance and Wanderer can be dipped into and out of. Remembrance looks at the political history of the area as well as Oriogun's personal history. Wanderer is about trying to make a home elsewhere. Oriogun doesn't always center himself in his poems. Many are for or about or in relation to others.

I am made aware of how lucky I am to have been raised in an English speaking country, which, because of its economic power, encourages others to learn English. I get to read the poetry of people with very different experiences from around the world expressed in non-translated English. This book is part of a project of Kwame Dawes and the University of Nebraska Press. It publishes the poetry of African poets, some in translation but many of them in English. What a rich treasure (over 30 books) for stepping into the lived experience of Africans and African immigrants.

Though knowledge of some of the African words in this book is not necessary to enjoy it, having a notes section or a simple glossary would have been nice for those who do get stuck on words they're unfamiliar with. Though it's extremely unusual in books of poetry, it also would have been cool to have a map.

Though this book is very centered in the experience of a Nigerian native who has left home and hasn't truly settled, I feel that many people born in and still living in the U.S. can relate to this feeling of being alienated from where we've grown up and trying to find a sense of belonging in a new place since we are such a mobile society. Even without the added challenges of language and skill barriers, a sense of rootlessness and a lack of belonging can become a nagging undercurrent in our lives.

Reading the 2024 Long List of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry

The 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award poetry long list of ten poetry books was announced in December 2024. The final determination of the winner will take place in March of 2025.

I purchased all of them, some digital, some hard copies, and at the very least sampled 30 pages of each. Of the ten, I didn't finish (DNF) four of them, which is not a bad ratio. Below are my comments on each of the books. At the end is the five NBCCA finalists and what would be my five finalists.

An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang (Copper Canyon)

I enjoyed reading this book of poetry but I wouldn’t say it wowed me. My favorite poems were the ones about being a mother. I’m not a mother so I don’t have a particular bias toward that subject matter. I just felt those were Chang’s best. She writes in free verse that sometimes employs long lines and sometimes short lines. Though much of the poems are left aligned, some of them escape the left margin and roam the white space. She frequently dispenses with punctuation and sometimes her enjambments can be jarring. Some of her poems refer to Plato so if you’ve read him recently there may be subtleties you’ll catch that I missed. She has three “Dialogues” poems and one on the death of Socrates. But there’s also a poem about life during the pandemic and one about surviving suicide, so this is not a book focused on a particular theme. It struck me as a book of a competent poet still finding her footing and the ground she wants to walk.


Cloud Missives by Kenzie Allen (Tin House) DNF

In theory, this should be a book I would enjoy because there's quite a bit of science involved, archaeology, anthropology, biology. But I just didn't feel engaged with it. There was nothing especially amiss with the poetics. I wouldn't hesitate to try another book by Allen. It strikes me that if I'd encountered this book 6 months ago, before I'd begun tackling poetry prize long lists, that I'd have gotten through it. As it is, I'm reading it at the tail end of these long lists and a book really has to have something that pulls at me to keep going. This book didn't have enough pull.


Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf (Nightboat) DNF

More than 50% of this struck me as intentionally obscure. I know it's intentional because there are poems that are fairly straight-forward and others with varying degrees of subtlety. I read almost 50% (ebook) of this book and decided to call it quits. I will give it marks for some humor and for addressing gender in some interesting ways (Bendorf is transgender).



A Gaze Hound That Hunteth by the Eye by V. Penelope Pelizzon (University of Pittsburgh)

Pellizon won me over immediately with her dense, inventive use of language. I settled in for an enjoyable ride and was not disappointed. This book tells the story of a woman who didn’t have children but had a wildly varied life in some pretty far flung places. At times it’s like reading a National Geographic photographer’s memoir in poetry or listening to an eccentric aunt recounting her life–never knowing what’s going to bubble up from her memory as you talk to her. Pellizon celebrates her adaptability and richness of experience while also comparing her choices against the norm, recognizing that standing apart from that norm can be isolating.


While I was happy to be dazzled by her language and experiences and charmed by her trusty canine, Chompsky, I was reading this as part of the National Book Critics Circle Award long list and started to wonder “where’s the beef.” It comes as a long 11-part poem “Of Vinegar Of Pearl” that is about her relationship with her cantankerous, independent, gritty mother as that mother wrestles unhappily with old age.


Pellizon is not a passive left-margin poet. She uses the space on the page and line breaks as an active part of her art. The look on the page from poem to poem may stay the same or may be completely different. The visual changes, however, don't use the more radical liberty of modern techniques. Her choices create interest without creating disorientation.


Who is this book for and not for? If you enjoy sonics and unusual word choices, you’ll enjoy Pellizon’s poetry. If you have to stop and look up every word you’re unfamiliar with, you could find her work frustrating. If you like seeing the wide world through the kaleidoscope of poetry and of someone who has inhabited diverse environments, this is for you. If you prefer confessional poetry, this book is not for you. If you like stanza variety that creates visual changes on the page, this book will hold your interest. If you have managed to remain devoted to a prickly parent, you’ll be able to relate to a section of this book. If you’re a person who has chosen a path through life that doesn’t include parenting, this is a window into how one person has framed her choice, especially as she starts to face her old age.

Samples of the poetry found in this volume:

https://ecotonemagazine.org/poetry/elegy-for-estrogen/

https://tinhouse.com/orts-slarts/

https://plumepoetry.com/a-gaze-hound-that-hunteth-by-the-eye/


Instructions for the Lovers by Dawn Lundy Martin (Nightboat) DNF

I've created a new label for this type of poetry: pretentious abstract confessionalism.


The Palace of Forty Pillars by Armen Davoudian (Tin House)

This book of poetry definitely puts Davoudian on my "to watch" list. He's a "younger" poet. He is currently working on a PhD at Stanford. As is true of most younger poets, "coming of age" type subject matter is present, mostly in the first half of the book. I enjoyed some of the formal experimentation in the first 2/3 of the book but the real stand-out is a sequence of 20 sonnets for which the book is named.


This sonnet sequence is conceptually interesting. The Palace of 40 Pillars is so named because the 20 constructed pillars are repeated within the reflecting pool. Davoudian has taken the idea of a crown of sonnets in which the last line of one poem is the first line of the second one and embedded it within the "turn" of each sonnet. He puts a space between the octave and sestet and the last line of the first has an echo (sometimes just one word) in the first line of the second. There is a lot of variation in the sonnets. One isn't 14 lines. Another is an amazing anagram of the word pomegranate. I don't think any of them have a strict rhyme scheme.


This sonnet sequence is worth the price of the book (which I think was $12 when I got it on amazon) if you're a fan of the sonnet and enjoy seeing what poets do with it. While I wouldn't call them like Shakespeare's sonnets, I see Davoudian reaching after The Bard in the word play he employs in his sonnets. It makes me curious to see what he will do next. I believe English is his second or third language and he's doing a great job of absorbing it and seeing the potential in words with double (or more meanings).


Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Is Carl Phillips a competent poet? Yes. But he’s not my guy. I found his 2023 Pulitzer Winner Then the War difficult to get through. That said, I did like this book better than Then the War and I particularly liked the poems in the second half of the book, where he does less equivocating. I’m still not very fond of how he uses the natural world. It’s as though he only uses it for metaphor, feeling no connection to it otherwise. As was true with Then the War, he is almost continuously in relationship in his poems. I began to feel claustrophobic, like I needed to tell this lurking non-specific person (or people) to back off, give Phillips some breathing room. I’m sure that says as much about me as about Phillips or the person/people he’s referring to. We are different people, Phillips and I. I read this book as part of a self-assigned project to read long lists of major poetry prizes. It’s nearly done. I can now give Phillips some breathing room myself.


Sturge Town by Kwame Dawes (W. W. Norton) 

Who is this book for? People who enjoy:

• Beautiful language.
• Books reflecting on loss and mortality (by extension probably people in the second half of life).
• Reading about the experiences of people who make up the African diaspora.
• The culture of the Caribbean, especially Jamaica.

I would say it’s best if you particularly like the first two on that list and are simply open to the last two. This would be a great book for a book club. It’s a book in five parts. For a book club I would recommend reading the first three sections for one session and leave the last two for a second session.

Outside of a book club, this is a book that could be read one poem at a time randomly. While there’s a development to the sections, it doesn’t have to be read from cover to cover and some of these poems would be good for savoring or reflecting on. There are many occasions of a recognizable experience well said.

Longing is a strong theme in the first part of the book. Though I mention the African diaspora above, anyone who has lived many places or repeatedly been a stranger or who has wondered what connection would occur when visiting an ancestral land can relate to his poems dealing with our relationship to a land and to history, whether personal ancestral history, cultural history or the history of the earth.

Here are links to some of the poems that appear in this volume. They’re not necessarily my favorites but they will give you a feel for the poetry he has collected in this book.

https://theadroitjournal.org/issue-forty-four/kwame-dawes/

https://yalereview.org/article/kwame-dawes-after-the-biopsy

https://yalereview.org/article/kwame-dawes-on-hearing-news

Who is this book not for? Apparently it’s not for the judges of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Well, that’s not quite fair. They did have it on their 2024 long list. However, it didn’t make it to the finalist list of five, which surprises me. I’ve read three of the five finalists and I would have placed this above all three of those. But poetry tastes are very individual. All I can do is recommend you give this one a try.


Wrong Norma by Anne Carson (New Directions) (already "read"–see Natl Bk Awards post) DNF


Yard Show by Janice N. Harrington (BOA)

Harrington is an African American woman who has lived in Alabama, Nebraska, and Illinois, and she is taking us on a Heritage tour in this book of poetry. She celebrates the grasslands she has known and revisits. She explores the liminal space of yards and porches as modes of expression and assertions of ownership. This book devotes four poems to the poor rural community of Pembroke Township, Illinois, that include snippets of oral history, observations and reflections. Along the way she questions how we perceive poverty. Other poems meditate on clouds and apple peeling but mostly on memory and place. There’s a quiet theme of disruption and questions of belonging and not belonging.

She brings along other thinkers in the form of quotes from Roland Barthes, Carl Phillips, and Martin Luther King, Jr., among many others, both well known and little known, weaving the history of thought through her poetry. This book includes an ample poem-by-poem notes section for reference. Despite having read all of the notes, I feel that there are nuances that I’ve missed on the first read, which is not uncommon in a book of poetry.

Her poems vary from the lyrical to direct observation, from lined poetry to numbered short paragraphs, from left aligned poems to more inventive forms of expression. Though it’s not strictly necessary to read this book from beginning to end, the final poems do feel like they have grown out of the experience of the earlier ones.

I was rather surprised when I came to the end of this book (was reading an ebook) and wished there had been more. In fact, I’d say my only criticism of this book is that it needed to be longer.


NBCCA 5 Finalists:
Wrong Norma (DNF) by Anne Carson
An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang
Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips
Instructions for the Lovers (DNF) Dawn Lundy Martin
Consider the Rooster (DNF) by Oliver Baez Bendorf

My 5 Finalists (in order of preference):
Sturge Town by Kwame Dawes (this would have been my winner)
A Gaze Hound that Hunteth by the Eye by V. Penelope Pellizon
Yard Show by Janice N. Harrington
The Palace of Forty Pillars by Armen Davoudian
An Authentic Life by Jennifer Chang

On neither finalist list: Cloud Missives by Kenzie Allen (DNF)

As of the date of posting this, the winner of the award has not been announced.

Part of the reason I've embarked on the project of reading the long list was to see if my tastes aligned with that of the NBCCA judges. They clearly don't since three of the five they chose as finalists were DNFs for me. Still, I'm glad to have read the five on my "finalist" list. Four of them were new to me. I'd read poems by Kwame Dawes before but never one of his books. This reading project has been an interesting experiment but I don't see myself repeating it. It's too expensive and I found myself rushing through the books I enjoyed to be sure to get through all ten. I prefer to be leisurely in my poetry reading and processing. Even though we don't agree, my hat is off to all of the readers and judges that make this poetry prize possible. These awards are important for keeping poetry alive and in the public eye.

Reading the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry Long List

I did not get along well with the poetry long list put out this year by the National Book Award judges. I didn't finish six of the ten. Four of the six were at least in part because of my sensitivity to the subject matter. I've learned that I currently have little to no tolerance for tragedy or the confessional mode at present. Two of the books I thought should not be categorized as poetry. Clearly the judges have more flexible attitudes toward where works fall on the poetry-not poetry spectrum than I do. I ended up wondering if part of the goal of the judges was to pick what they felt Americans should read as a matter of cultural awareness and self-reflection since five, possibly even six, of these books deal with marginalization and victimization. Unfortunately these are still very relevant topics both nationally and globally. However, I'm currently feeling tragedy fatigue and am not willing to read books on those topics, especially if I've read about them before and the language used isn't engaging enough to move me forward despite a distaste for the subject.

So here is a set of lists: their long list, their short list of finalists, a list of the ones I didn't finish, and the short list I would have made if it was up to me. After the lists, I have remarks about each book.

Here is their list:

https://www.nationalbook.org/2024-national-book-awards-longlist-for-poetry/

Anne Carson, Wrong Norma
Fady Joudah, […]
Dorianne Laux, Life on Earth
Gregory Pardlo, Spectral Evidence
Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Silver
Octavio Quintanilla, The Book of Wounded Sparrows
m.s. RedCherries, mother
Diane Seuss, Modern Poetry
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Something About Living
Elizabeth Willis, Liontaming in America

Actual NBA finalists
Wrong Norma by Anne Carson
[...] Fady Joudah
Mother by m.s. RedCherries
Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss
Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

My DNFs (did not finish)
Wrong Norma by Anne Carson
[...] Fady Joudah
The Book of Wounded Sparrows by Octavio Quintanilla
mother by m.s. RedCherries
Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Liontaming in America by Elizabeth Willis

If I were to pick 5 finalists, which 5 would I have chosen?
Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss
Spectral Evidence by Gregory Pardo
Silver by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Life on Earth by Dorianne Laux
[...] by Fady Joudah (though I didn’t finish it)

My thoughts on them are presented below in the order I read them. *=The award winner chosen by the National Book Award judges. **=My favorite book of the ten.

Anne Carson, Wrong Norma DNF
New Directions Publishing
Probably the biggest reason I abandoned this about half way through was that I didn’t feel like I was reading poetry. I felt like I was reading flash fiction narratives. On top of that, I felt there were classical allusions were being dropped that were beyond me. I did appreciate some of the humor (what I perceived as humor). 

Dorianne Laux, Life on Earth
Norton / W. W. Norton & Company
I chose this book after Carson’s because I expected it to be about real life experiences and I wasn’t disappointed in this. It was a nice grounded reading experience after Wrong Norma. In Life on Earth, Laux is locating herself in her middle old age by discussing both the experience of aging, such as down-sizing her home, and of looking back over her life at memories of childhood and throughout her adulthood. Though tough, uncomfortable aspects of life are shown, this is essentially an optimistic and life-loving book. This would make a good summer read poetry book. Not in the way that we think of light fiction for summer reading but rather that this book seems centered in summer. Fall and winter are familiar and acknowledged but the optimism and fullness of summer, of a life well-lived, characterizes this book. Dorianne Laux is like a fragrant hot bath. There are aches and pains within it if you’re of a certain age and/or infirmity but it’s soothing and affirms that life is good and aches and pains can be eased.

**Diane Seuss, Modern Poetry
Graywolf Press
Seuss is a master of metaphor, simile and cynicism. Like Laux’s Life on Earth, these poems look at the present and the past but Seuss lacks Laux’s optimism despite pain. Seuss tends to take pain as a gritty given worth skewering with a metaphor or five. Suess’s book leans toward the confessional vein of poetry (while also showing some skepticism of it). In places she explores the line between personal responsibility and those things both personal and cultural that we inherit and then wrestle with or succumb to. If you like poetry in which a person examines how they got where they are and questions much of it along the way, including poetic axioms, Suess’s book is worth reading. It’s also worth reading for her gift of turns of phrase and quirky but apt comparisons in the quest to communicate the nuances of experience.

Warning: If you read Diane Seuss, you may begin seeing metaphors while driving. I’m not aware of any corrective lenses for this phenomenon.

Gregory Pardlo, Spectral Evidence
Knopf / Penguin Random House
I gave this 5 stars on Goodreads for an ambitious plan well executed. Pardlo explains the big project, which, in simple terms, is to explore racism and sexism and their intersection across time, personally and socially--through sets of discrete poems. To decide whether you're interested in this book, it's worthwhile reading the explanatory introduction and the references cited in the back of the book. If those two things interest you, read the whole thing.

The poems in the book look at incidents the poet was not directly involved in--deep into history--and incidents from his own life. There's an awareness of continuing to actively live through these issues and feeling the potential to put a dent in them while acknowledging how deep rooted they are. It's essentially looking at two forms of othering. He does a great job of selecting out language from historical texts that shows how absurd and illogical the rules or standards put in place to justify othering have been. Is it a perfect book? No. But I can easily see why it was on the National Book Award for poetry long list and it's worth reading if you think it behooves you to keep a spotlight on these issues. It would be great for discussion in a book club, whether a poetry book club or any other kind.

Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Silver

Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers  

It's my first time reading this poet. This is one of those poetry books that's for those in the know about poetry so I don't know how much it would be enjoyed by someone not in the know. I'd say I'm about 50% in the know about the classical and literary allusions he's making to his poet predecessors. He hides nothing in the table of contents itself, which includes titles such as Paradise Lost, Romanticism, Biographia Literaria, Prelude, Key West, Ars Poetica. Okay, so from the getgo I've clearly run smack into a poetry book full of poems about other poems or the writing of poems. This is usually a groanable state of affairs for me. I prefer poems that talk about the world outside of poetry. However, I have to admit, I really enjoyed this book, especially the way he talks back to Wordsworth and the Romantics. Does it make me want to run out and buy more of his books? No, but I enjoyed hearing him grapple with the tension between earlier poets, especially their focus on nature, and the world he lives in. He does so with an admirable balance of appreciation and pushback.

Fady Joudah, […] DNF
Milkweed Editions 

I am not a fan of the title but I get it. Many of the poems have the same [...] title. Immediately upon reading I understood that the ellipsis was intended to indicate an ongoing situation and was less bothered by it. I'm not going to fault Joudah’s poetry. The poems I read had some striking lines in them. My main issue is that I'm not up to reading another book with this subject matter at this time. Joudah is a Palestinian-American (and a doctor for those who like to read doctor poets) and it is the tragic Palestinian situation he is writing about. One of the early poems in the book is about the death of children. It's one of the best poems I've read of this kind. But do I want to read more? No.

Octavio Quintanilla, The Book of Wounded Sparrows DNF
Texas Review Press

If you want to understand how the separation of immigrant children from their parents affect them, this is the book for you. You also might enjoy it if you like a book that includes images by the poet. In this book, you also get poetry that varies in the way it makes use of the space on the page. As with Joudah’s book, what was a killer for me was the subject matter. I don’t need anyone to convince me of the damage that causes. I taught English as a Second Language to teens and adults for years and have heard of all sorts of border crossing trauma. So the poet is going to have to convince me that I want to read about this subject and he doesn’t. The first half focuses on his mother. I found it a kind of confessional poetry that didn’t appeal to me–stronger on the pathos than on poetic technique. The second section seems to focus on his father. Every now and then his talent as a poet shone through but I didn’t feel engaged enough to continue. Some of his art I liked and some did nothing for me. I didn’t find that the paintings added to the book particularly. They’re not integrated into the poetry but rather they’re in separate sections.

m.s. RedCherries, mother DNF
Penguin Books / Penguin Random House

RedCherries is Northern Cheyenne and this book is about the Native American experience. She makes a point of declaring at the front of the book that this is a book of characters rather than her own personal experience. None of this initially turned me off. In fact it made me optimistic and curious. But as I started to read it, it seemed like a lot of stuff I've read before. The "story," which is vague, didn't engage me. The only thing I found different from other Native lit I've read is that it is treating the 1970s as historical and there's a lot of roving in it. This is a hybrid book that goes back and forth from prose to poetry and is more prosy than poetic. It's one of those things where I've read better elsewhere on the same themes. I could see this being a worthwhile book in a Native American Lit class, but I'm not in one so I'm moving on.

*Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Something About Living DNF
University of Akron Press 16.95
This one is again about Palestine/Gaza. I can see why this one won over [...] by Joudah. Tuffaha uses poetic techniques in terms of space on the page and textual changes. Her poems also seem to interweave narratives/perspectives more than Joudah's. However, if I had to choose between these two, I would have chosen Joudah's book. His language was much more interesting and he had some very evocative lines. With his book I regretted not wanting to read about the subject matter. With this book, I did not.

Elizabeth Willis, Liontaming in America DNF
New Directions Publishing
If you’re interested in an essay about the isolation of starting anew (think pioneering and exploration), read this book, your interest will be satisfied with something interesting that looks at this phenomenon in varied ways. But I saw very little poetry in it. It’s very expository. To me it’s creative nonfiction or a slightly creative essay. The language is not creative. The format is not creative. Even the narrative aspects of it are explaining the narrative more than providing the narrative. If I were to give this an award it would be in cultural criticism from a historical perspective. That's based on how far I got in the book. It may have made a turn toward religion, especially Mormonism, later. I would say it’s leaning toward conceptually complex but good essays are conceptually complex. Being conceptually complex is not solely, or even particularly the purview of poetry. Not at all. I’m curious to know why the author and/or publisher decided to categorize this as poetry.