The Daily Glance--Jill Stengel's equinox

I just read through three of Jill Stengel's chapbooks: tether (above/ground press), only this (dusie), and equinox (dusie).  only this is a fascinating collection made up of collages that look like they were copied on a Xerox.  Words are cropped at the beginnings and endings of some lines.  Sections are overlaid, making the pieces feel more like graphic arts at times than poetry.  tether is filled with brief poems--the longest is seven short lines, and the collection seems best read as a whole, for individual pieces are at times quite fragmentary: "(what / if I wore Tuesday / on Friday."  This one feels like an epigram, but the open parenthesis makes it feel like the poem is not finished.  My favorite of the chapbooks is equinox.  Like tether, it contains short pieces, but they are boxy pieces with lines of roughly the same length, and they have a more plaintive tone.  all but one start with the phrase "dear equinox--" as though they are letters; really, they seem more like prayers.

dear equinox-- dear night and
day filled with longing and
seek, bless this path of
search, hold me in light
so that I may see myself
and if the way be dark I
shall strike a match and if
the match is wet with tears
I will find my own light, I
will burn brightly I will
find a way to find my way

Throughout the collection, equinox seems to be a symbol that just allows one a companion in a search for self.  There is no one to answer the prayer but the one asking it; still, it needs to be voiced. 

Stengel's book Dear Jack is waiting in shrink wrap on my desk.  After reading these chapbooks, I am eager to explore her work in a longer collection.