The Daily Glance (The Kollectiv Series)
Dawn Pendergast's leaves fall leaves is one of my favorite kollectiv chapbooks yet. The cover is sown cloth with leaves on it. The format cannot help but recall to my mind Whitman's originally version of Leaves of Grass, covered as it was with roots and green. The title, of course, helps with that connection. Plus, the book is printed on nice off-white paper. It's so nice that at first I just wanted to hold it without reading. I was afraid the reading experience wouldn't match the book, but my fears were unfounded, for the poetry is playful and well-crafted.
when fills the sky with leaves
& day bits
& dim breaks
day speaks /
cudgel the word for
casting effing naked claws
at bay
// why sweet bay
my mind ex-
alts
where pelicans fasten
some plural of touching
down,
floating kinds
of hay/Hello
sweetness
exists
What can one say about lines like these? Beautiful, intelligent, joyous, meandering--still not quite enough. This is the mountain. What else can I say?
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