The Daily Glance--Lanthier's Reporting from Night
Kateri Lanthier's Reporting from Night has been waiting next to my desk for several years. I finally got around to reading it, and it seems appropriate for me since I have small children. Lanthier brings in her family quite a bit in the book. Her role as a mother is prominent, as is the specter of children.
"Dance with me!"
Two-year-old tyrant
to his wild-eyed cook
Sun sinks off the menu
a pool of hot sauce
on a dried-twig bed.
In many of the poems, it feels like Lanthier stopped mid-stream during a daily event to recognize the insight or joy to be found there. Bedtime stories show up, as do lullabies and midnight duty. These things are touching and enjoyable to read; still, my favorite poems in the collection bring in small bits of nature: beetles, dragonflies, woods, winds. Lanthier paints nature images well.
Rain transmissions to out hilltop
through the window screen:
softened earth,
unwrapped leaves,
buds open-mouthed.
There is a calm beauty in lines such as these that makes me want to sit back pensive and look out over the spaces that she has created on the page.
"Dance with me!"
Two-year-old tyrant
to his wild-eyed cook
Sun sinks off the menu
a pool of hot sauce
on a dried-twig bed.
In many of the poems, it feels like Lanthier stopped mid-stream during a daily event to recognize the insight or joy to be found there. Bedtime stories show up, as do lullabies and midnight duty. These things are touching and enjoyable to read; still, my favorite poems in the collection bring in small bits of nature: beetles, dragonflies, woods, winds. Lanthier paints nature images well.
Rain transmissions to out hilltop
through the window screen:
softened earth,
unwrapped leaves,
buds open-mouthed.
There is a calm beauty in lines such as these that makes me want to sit back pensive and look out over the spaces that she has created on the page.
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