{"id":327,"date":"2015-05-05T15:42:22","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T19:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/?p=327"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:15:22","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T02:15:22","slug":"review-of-reckless-lovely-by-martha-silano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/?p=327","title":{"rendered":"Review of Reckless Lovely by Martha Silano"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Silano<\/a>Martha Silano. Reckless Lovely. <\/em>Saturnalia Books, 2014. 68 pgs. $15.00.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Lynn Domina<\/p>\n

The most succinct statement I can think to make about Martha Silano\u2019s fourth collection, Reckless Lovely, <\/em>is that it is wildly imaginative. It\u2019s the juxtapositions, the connections, the metaphors she creates that attract me so, and they are all entangled in a clash of language that compels the reader\u2019s curiosity. There\u2019s no nodding off in the middle of this book. Reading her poems, I\u2019m reminded a little bit of Pattiann Rogers, a little bit of Barbara Ras, a little bit, even, of Gerard Manly Hopkins. Yet Silano\u2019s voice is her own. The poems are reverent without being pietistic, irreverent without being mean-spirited; they are smart without being pedantic, studded with references to popular culture yet also engaged with large questions; they are fetching and feminist and downright funny.<\/p>\n

Reckless Lovely <\/em>is arranged in three sections, reasonably similar in length. Most often, the poems are composed in couplets, though the collection includes several other forms, including prose poems, odes, abecedarians, glosas, and others. There\u2019s enough variety of form\u2014including overlap or combinations of forms\u2014so that the predominance of couplets seems an active choice rather than a default mode.<\/p>\n

While there are many poems I would like to discuss, I\u2019ll limit myself to two. (Regarding the others, such as \u201cOde to Frida Kahlo\u2019s Eyebrows,\u201d I\u2019ll just thrust the book at you when we meet, saying, \u201cHere, read this.\u201d) Although these poems differ in form, they both exhibit Silano\u2019s strategies and strengths in terms of poetic craft, and they both illustrate some of her interests in terms of content.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack Holes,\u201d the second poem in the collection, is a prose poem that relies on extended metaphors and consistent patterns of imagery in its attempt to explain something that is, to many of us non-scientists, just too bizarre to comprehend even if we believe we possess a rudimentary understanding. A black hole is itself, of course, a metaphor, not a hole at all but a segment of space so dense, whose gravity is so strong, that nothing, not even light, escapes. To our human eyes, any space absolutely devoid of light appears to be empty. So many poets have used the phrase \u201cblack hole\u201d simply as a metaphor, to the extent that its use as a metaphor has become clich\u00e9d, even though many people who seem to find the phrase attractive also seem to have little understanding of its actual meaning. Silano refreshingly (at least as far as I can tell), in this poem and others, gets the science right, although the poem has at least as much to do with daily life and human longings as it does with a scientific concept. The poem begins with an interesting explanation of a black hole\u2019s characteristics:<\/p>\n

Those pink splotches up there on the planetarium ceiling? What happens when fusion ceases and gravity wins, the lighter stuff spewing in all directions, winding up as craneflies and shrews, the big stuff collapsing, reducing down to a dark pumpernickel loaf the baker neglected to knead. Challah\u2019s much less dense\u2014light escapes. Same goes for Wonder Bread.<\/p>\n

The poem continues this way, describing the human form in terms of pasta, mentioning Einstein, parking spaces, and Mick Jagger, incorporating technical language\u2014\u201cgravity is just the curvature of space and time\u201d and \u201cthe point of singularity\u201d\u2014along with \u201cAunt Josephine\u2019s eggplant parmigiana.” It all concludes with this elaborate sentence that both summarizes and extends the poem:<\/p>\n

It reminds me of the summer I tried to learn a foreign language, feeling all wow, when really I knew about fifteen words: Por favore, un mezzo kilo di pane, <\/em>and just like that\u2014thwack of a knife, hunk of crusty bread\u2014the same way I\u2019m telling you now there\u2019s no escape.<\/p>\n

To catch on to what Silano is doing here, the poem requires rereading, but the language is so much fun that most readers, I imagine, would be drawn to reread it anyway. The poem rewards several readings, in fact, as allusions and images reveal the poem\u2019s structural logic. We reach the last line again and again, acknowledging that there is no escape, not from the laws of physics and not from our human frustrations, anxieties, and desires.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to Read Italian Renaissance Painting\u201d relies on equally interesting language. Written in couplets, it represents on the one hand many of Silano\u2019s characteristic strategies. Yet it also reveals how adept she is with these strategies. She relies on parallel sentence structures and repeated phrases often enough to create insistence, but she also shifts the phrasing frequently enough to maintain readerly interest. Initially, the poem introduces features common to Renaissance painting:<\/p>\n

Pay attention to the cryptic grapes, wandering
\naimless skulls, a robed apostle\u2019s vortex<\/p>\n

of red. Pay attention to luminous gloom,
\nto the attention paid to each fold, each leaf,<\/p>\n

each angel\u2019s blue-tipped wing, to every look
\nof beseeching dismay. Notice uneasy clouds<\/p>\n

to the right, uncertain urns to the left. Notice
\ntheatrical expressions, God diving in to shatter<\/p>\n

the silence in Mary\u2019s room. Notice shutters
\neverywhere. Take these to mean the master<\/p>\n

is a master of worry\u2026<\/p>\n

This repetition works because the structure of the lines does not simply duplicate the structure of the sentences. The repeated words \u201cPay attention\u201d and \u201cNotice\u201d never appear in the same position within a line more than once. The rhythm of the poem, then, as the product of line and sentence, becomes much more interesting because Silano attends thoughtfully to both, composing as good poets do, according to the line. The meaning of lines, taken separately from the meaning of sentences, enlarges the meaning of the poem. For example, if we read the lines \u201ctheatrical expressions, God diving in to shatter\u201d or \u201ceverywhere. Take these to mean the master\u201d as lines rather than only as components of sentences, their meanings shift, sometimes slightly, sometimes more profoundly. Is God\u2019s activity a piece of theater? Is the master everywhere, just as the shutters are? Of course not every line will function this way, but most of us could probably improve our craft by reading Reckless Lovely <\/em>specifically to analyze how Silano uses the line.<\/p>\n

The repetition in this poem also works because it\u2019s not the only thing going on. Notice, for example, the assonance in \u201cluminous gloom,\u201d followed by \u201cblue\u201d two lines later. Then there\u2019s \u201cuncertain urns\u201d in line seven. And there\u2019s the alliteration of \u201cshatter the silence\u201d and \u201cshutters.\u201d And there\u2019s the off rhyme of \u201cshatter,\u201d \u201cshutters,\u201d and \u201cmaster.\u201d In addition, the vocabulary is consistently concrete, and the parts of speech that tend to flatten out rhythm\u2014prepositions, articles\u2014occur rarely. Nouns and verbs predominate, but even the modifiers are interesting: \u201ccryptic grapes,\u201d \u201cblue-tipped wing,\u201d \u201cbeseeching dismay.\u201d \u201cHow to Read Italian Renaissance Painting\u201d is a finely wrought poem. It\u2019s given me pleasure as a reader, for it\u2019s encouraged me to think about the visual arts more carefully, and it\u2019s given me pleasure as a writer as I\u2019ve noticed how attentively Silano approaches craft.<\/p>\n

Silano\u2019s care for language is apparent throughout this collection. The content of her poems suggest that she is a poet with broad interests, which makes for interesting reading. Reckless Lovely <\/em>is a collection I look forward to rereading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martha Silano. Reckless Lovely. Saturnalia Books, 2014. 68 pgs. $15.00. Reviewed by Lynn Domina The most succinct statement I can think to make about Martha Silano\u2019s fourth collection, Reckless Lovely, is that it is wildly imaginative. It\u2019s the juxtapositions, the connections, the metaphors she creates that attract me so, and they are all entangled in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-areviewaweek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}