A Daily Glance
Lina ramona Vitkauskas' Failed Star Spawns Planet/Star reminds me in an odd way of the Delphic oracle. The oracle would sit over a pit and breathe in smoke before she told her prophecies, and the pieces in the chapbook make me feel like I'm in a smoky room listening to the oracle. The subject matter seems sci-fi in the beginning, and it takes a minute to readjust before continuing. Lina adds notes to help with this process; still, it feels like we're listening to something future, to something just beyond out time. There are, of course, very human elements in the collection, and in total the chapbook seems to be commenting on a relationship(s) with its discussion of planetary forces, dead stars, and orbits.**
**This chapbook reminds me of something I heard Grant Jenkins say a few years ago at a conference. He said that with innovative poetry you have to be willing to sit with being confused and then just look at what is there. With decent poets, you can usually figure out what the system is, and then it all starts to click. (***I don't know if this is what Grant really said, but that's how I remember it.)
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