MicroLook, Haley Lasche's One

Haley Lasche's One is the first book out from Beauty School Editions, and it's a nice first start. For me, this book feels almost like a book of photographs since it consists largely of poems written by the poet in the wild. That's not stated, but it feels like that, for there are often parataxtic stanzas with fascinating imagery and beautiful langauge, and as a reader, I get caught up in those elements and forget to look around for other things like meaning. That forgetting makes reading the book an experience worth having, for getting lost in the the sound, image, and beauty.

emptiness of fire
or scent of woodsmoke

sun-washed solution
of maidern hair clinging

the coiled screen seeds itself
into pomegranate husk ("vigil of frozen wood")

These lines are arresting enough on their own, but they are part of a collection that is filled with such images. Ultimately, there is a presence behing the poems presenting them, selecting the words and images, but we don't see the presence except through the wildness presented. That makes it feel like we are sharing the experience with the presence instead of getting guided.