Saturday, March 29, 2014

Incarnadine by Mary Szybist

Yes, I finally broke down and read it…after over a year of feeling like I should. It's like William Stafford, though. You get sick of hearing about certain academic authors over and over and over again. Not that Szybist hasn't earned all the attention. She and her husband are "the beautiful people" of Lewis & Clark College.

This collection of Szybist's poetry expanded on her quasi-mythological academic beauty--I was surprised by how genuine the sentiments expressed in her pieces were. I also enjoyed (with sadness) her opening up to the reader and revealing some of those feelings and desires that most people keep hidden. "Update on Mary" is at the same time run-of-the-mill and intense. And throughout her poetry, she used wonderful imagery--very bright and whole pictures, but a bit ethereal, too.

My favorite poems were "Entrances and Exits," "Annunciation in Play" and, creepily enough, "Do Not Desire Me, Imagine Me." In most cases, I could imagine Szybist reading each line with her slow, calm, soothing, whispery voice. That voice is like double churned ice cream…It gives me shivers to think of it. The perfect poetry voice. I don't know if the poems would be as compelling without me knowing how they should sound.

At any rate, I wasn't bowled over by the collection as a whole, but I suppose I was won over in the end. Incarnadine is at least half of what it's cracked up to be.

~7/10~

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