The Daily Glance
Karla Kelsey's Iteration Nets is fascinating largely in its play with form. Kelsey starts the book with a series of contemporary sonnets, then she expands these into prose poems, and from there she cuts out of the prose poems to create the last pieces of the book. The sonnet seems to be under everything, for the methods she uses there of "sampling" other authors' texts flows throughout the book; moreover, she has a playful understanding of the form and uses a wide range of technique. Beyond her handling of form, Kelsey manages language rhythms well withinthe individual pieces.
My span, my sail-whipped round sings ends,
the stalking fragments/here pastured. Wild horses
tie land, cry pale lipped clouds, fling, send
a mocking sad bent/ where bastard mild forces
on top/ arise.
In fact, Kelsey handles form and rhythm so well that I focused more on those elements than the content, though the content in itself is interesting. Ultimately, this book makes me want to go back and take a look at her first book.
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