Vexed

by

eBook, 76 pages

English language

Published by ubu editions.

2 stars (1 review)

Grim's style masterly evokes the simplicities of poetry in the "New American" vein, with its fragments of candid observation just shimmering on the surface of the poem, but she allies it with a "post-Language" sensibility that balks before the prospect of a too-fluid Romanticism, thus spicing sensual reverie with documentary relevance. The musicality of Grim's poems is understated, the words delicately gathered, such that the poems occasionally seem given over to indeterminacy and chance, but in fact each one has a formal perfection that illustrates an underlying lyrical integrity.

1 edition

reviewed Vexed by Jessica Grim (Ubu Editions)

Stark, harsh and over my head

2 stars

Grim's collection of poems are immediate, direct, and heavy. Written at a time when the poet was clearly (as the title suggests) vexed, the poems are often biting and use harsh rhythms and angry phrases (sometimes feeling almost resigned).

Without an in-depth knowledge of poetry in the early 21st Century, I don't feel equipped to write about this book in any detail; the rhythms and style went over my head a lot. The phrases and use of vocabulary were pleasant to read out loud but for me the language didn't combine into any coherent whole. Maybe that was the point – war, disillusionment, travel are all in the book as themes and this mish-mash might be the essence of what Grim wants to tell us. In the end, while I enjoyed some of the poems and really embraced the long second part, I found this collection too disjointed.