The Daily Glance
Kimberly Lyons' Abracadabra is a book with various types of poems; the section divisions in the book act to show us the cohesion inside. The introductory note tells us that some of the poems are put into sections based on the time written, while some are collected based upon being written in relation to a writing group, art, or film. I enjoyed how the poems often deal with daily scenes recollected and elaborated upon, but the section that I liked the most was Details & Incidents. It is the opening section of the book, and it pulled me into Lyons' work and made me want to read the rest of the collection. Take, for instance, "Draft":
Orion, fences, and writingGranted, I like poems that talk about writing, and I think that's why this one strikes me, for in it, Lyons seems to express her poetics, though not in a straight way--poetics as draft, as in progress as the things around us are. It seems, upon a quick reading, that her poetics is one of logos in flux.
at peripheries
that hieroglyphic and accumulate
on every strip of distance
I only saw architecturally
blood dips and flame sprouts
their astronomy
horizon's compass and wheat.
To balance thought on the head
a wick, fuel.
Camel's hump.
Collect jars along its curve.
Draft, work in progress
the sun says to the old things.
***This book is one that I'm sad it took me so long to read. I picked it up a many years ago when at a used bookstore with Camille Martin. I remember Camille telling me that she liked the book, so I grabbed it, intending to read it right away. It ended up on my poetry shelves only to be disturbed now that I'm packing up books to move. (Yes, I'm moving from my Hyde Park place with a view of 56th street. I've used the study there to write most of my books in the last seven years.)
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