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Some poems I liked, most poems I couldn't get into. That's a shame
Maggie Nelson produces all the feels. I can almost taste the delight, melancholy, and dreams.
I love Maggie Nelson’s work and read her books from most recent to oldest. This book demonstrates all the potential she shows much later on in her life, but it doesn’t quite have the brilliance of Bluets. Still, there are a few shining poems in this collection.
Listen, I am a HUGE fan of Maggie Nelson. As in, I think she is one of the best living writers. But this collection of poems (her first publication, circa 2001) does nothing for me. I felt like I was reading an MFA student’s notebook during the semester they took a class on the Beat Generation. It’s all frenzy, fracture, no punctuation, run-ons, shock and onomatopoeia. Maggie Nelson is a genius and this poetry is nevertheless Not My Thing.
I just don’t understand poetry
It's funny, for someone whose prose I adore and revere so highly... I'm not such a fan of Nelson's poetry. There are, of course, moments that sing -- the last poem, in particular, in this collection truly does capture the first push of spring in the city -- but ultimately this was a "fine" collection. Nothing exceptional, nothing horrible, just... poesy. Maybe it will grab you, in the ways that the collections I truly adore might not've grabbed you -- or maybe it's just worth it to see where the...
I imagine there’s a certain mindset you have to get into to review a book like Shiner, a debut from a monumentally talented author that certainly shows their talent but doesn’t quite reveal how spectacular they are and gives no indication of the myriad ways they would develop. In the case of Maggie Nelson, I’d have to zap myself back to 2001, when she was still rising up through the poetry journals and not attempting her terrific lyric essay-poetry fusion project that she started on with Jane: A...
Many of the poems in this collection slipped by without sinking in because they felt deeply personal and specific. The ones that didn't, those that were a bit more accessible and translatable, were incredible though.
"are we the glass the world pours into or, is it our love that saturates the world?"
The house is over. That is,what you never went back forhas been loaded into a dumpster...This is memory weather, and I rememberthe roof in summer. How it stood.How we stood upon it.
I wanted to like this collection because I normally really enjoy Nelson’s poetry, but this felt lack luster. There were a good five or so poems that I loved, but most of them fell flat for me. Some seemed like a stream of consciousness with no conclusion (and not in a way that makes you think) while others get even more disconnected. I was disappointed that I finished it without feeling as if I’d gained anything from the experience.
Everything is muted and blue the tip-tap ofcreation seemscloudy, not crisp and words knownothing morethan I do, or they’re not telling. Read this in one sitting and I’m sure I’ll revisit. 💙
The progression of the poems in this collection intrigues me; it's as if the form and the language of the work itself is slowly opening to the reader, gradually and deliberately becoming less opaque almost with each page. "After a Fight" and "Winding Down" are particular standouts, hinting at the lyric, shimmering slipperiness of Nelson's later and more well-known work.
I know I'm not supposed to be charmed by lines like "Now I'm going to buy // as much beer as five dollars // can buy and drink it // right here on the sofa" and "your swollen sinus headache prohibits sex // and that's too bad as I have a fever" in these dark days of instagram poets but I chuckled at them, so there.
3 stars in comparison to the normal 5 for Nelson
at first i was like “these poems are ok” and then one day i got home from work and had the apartment to myself and read the poems out loud and then i realized that they were perfect.
Maggie Nelson as a baby poet is kind of adorable — and you glimpse just what she will become. But there’s a lot of Eileen Myles in here. And Frank O’Hara. Just wait for Bluets — and the Red Parts. That’s where she sings.
Such a delight. To read and revisit time and time again.
GOD this was beautiful. I would read maggie nelson's grocery lists. "it's too hard to recall which it was -that all sadness is really anger or all anger is really sadness." "make it new, everyone kept saying,so I gave up and made it mine." "are we the glass the world pours into, or is it our love that saturates the world?""I am transporting an adorable succulentthe size of an infant's fist, holding it close as ifit were the one thing I had to keep aliveand thinking how much easier it would beif
this was more of a 4 star read if we are being, like, Objective, but I am sad and I recently reread Maggie Nelson’s ‘Something Bright, Then Holes’ (read it for the first time like 2 yrs ago) which was a really impactful read for me and is still one of my fave poetry collections evr, so even tho her debut collection was lacking a lot of the gut punches that SBTH has and she uses way too many exclamation points in the beginning poems, maybe like 60% of the poems were 5 star poems and made my heart...
