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Rachel Kann's another sad atlas and glistening, glittering |
Most everyone knows the giddy, anticipatory feeling of
opening a new CD by a favorite artist, especially a
double CD. The feeling is likewise when cracking
Rachel Kann’s two most recent chapbooks, another sad
atlas and glistening, glittering.
Both chapbooks sparkle, literally, with their soft,
glittery blue and yellow covers that radiate not
unlike sidewalks on a hot summer’s day. Each chapbook
contains eight poems, some ranging from a few pages
each to longer poems at four or five pages each.
Most of the poems have a performance feel; Kann is a
seasoned slam poet after all, but they work well on
the page simply because the voice is so strong, lucid,
and consistent. Kann’s tone is urgent and unrelenting,
but it can also be reflective, somber, and even
jubilant.
The overarching theme of Kann’s work seems to be the
persistence of life despite its imperfection. Personal
failures, hard luck love, compromises and limitations
are balanced with a sense of hope woven through the
difficulty of challenge and change.
Many poems probe the complex nature of romantic
relationships that turn self-destructive. Three such
poems, “parts” and “risetofall” (from glistening) and
“wait” (from atlas) are about romantic entanglements
hanging by disintegrating threads. In “parts” there is
the wish to salvage something from the relationship,
anything, to pick up the pieces and establish a new
whole, only to find that the “whole” is every bit as
cracked and broken. The pain of vulnerability is in
full view: “one time while eating at that sidewalk
café my/heart leapt straight out of my chest/she lay
quivering and pulsating on top of your pasta sauce,” a
stunningly heartbreaking image.
In “risetofall” the drama is heightened between a
woman who gives and gives with nothing in return aside
from the man’s manipulation and intimidation and is
summed up with revelatory insight: “and you/you make a
better idea than human being/better in theory than
practice.” But this ray of self-revelation is
short-lived; the poem ends in self-sabotage: “I am a
daredevil who dives headlong/eyes closed, wrists
open/playing chicken with dignity/always braced for
collision.”
“wait” is the more hopeful of the three because it is
far more self-aware. For every wrong committed there
is a realization and a determination to preserve the
self from further damage and the willingness to heal
any hurt: “I will wait. wait for my heart to
rediscover the scent of my/fingerprints and follow
it./when I catch wind of her beating wings/I will
spirit her/back inside of/me.” Not all of the
relationship poems are so dire, however; “12 Days” and
“if” are celebratory and supportive and offer a
welcome counterbalance.
Another strong theme in both books is the power of an
individual’s voice, specifically female. “Nature”
(from atlas) is the longest poem at five pages. It is
a call to female empowerment in a society that
idealizes femininity and shuns female intuition and
instinct for fear that such unleashed power may
dramatically alter how we look at ourselves and at
each other. It becomes not only about the rise above
oppression of women, but the rise above oppression of
any marginalized segment of society. To that end, the
poem transcends itself.
Both books employ a diverse, rich, and imaginative
selection of wordplay so that the language and the
feelings evoked are always in motion, even in quieter
moments. The only qualm is that both books have such
similar themes and tones that they are
indistinguishable from one another. What could have
been one chapbook with 16 poems is published as two
chapbooks with eight poems apiece. The main difference
is that glistening, glittering is a collection of
previously published work; another sad atlas contains
work, some of it previously performed but never before
published.
A few poems, however, break with Kann’s formidable yet
familiar take on life and love. “when the light went
out,” (from atlas) and “4:39” (from glistening) are
about being purely present in a moment in time and
employ a significant amount of sense memory and detail
despite their brevity at one page apiece, which
actually works in each poem’s favor. The imagery is
more of one’s relationship with the natural
environment than with one’s relationship to other
people and situations and things. These two poems
establish their own unique freshness and could take
Kann’s future writings in an entirely different
direction.
another sad atlas and glistening, glittering are
companion chapbooks that relish life in all its
visceral glory and pain and would enrich any personal
chapbook collection. They are the next best things to
seeing Kann perform live and after the show, you can
thankfully take a little bit of Rachel Kann home with
you.
another sad atlas, copyright 2004. All Rights Reserved. 23 pgs. Self published by Rachel Kann. Printer: re:press, Hollywood, CA. No ISBN #.
glistening, glittering, copyright 2004. All Rights Reserved. 24 pgs. Self published by Rachel Kann. Printer: re:press, Hollywood, CA. No ISBN #.
copyright 2005
Julia
Bemiss |
