Natasha Rao: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

________________________________________________

Abecedarian on Shame

 

A mushroom quietly throbs with poison. I

bloat full of lies. Spurred by my

capacity for ruin, I insulted my brother

during the brief visit home, got too drunk in the

expensive restaurant while my mother’s worry

fermented. When confronted with my lack of

gentleness, I blame birth control or the moon, but

haunted by the palpitations of a mouse stuck

in glue, I knew atonement was beyond my trapping.

Just months ago I shaved all my fur then

knelt naked in front of not-you, have

laid in unfamiliar beds, squeak becoming purr,

metamorphosing into whatever kind of

nocturnal creature strangers desire. I keep

offering the soft meat of myself to

people I meet on the internet, save the stinging

quills for those who love me. I don’t know how to

reassemble myself into the kind of animal who

sniffs her way home every time. Somewhere,

there is a version of me whose instinct is to

tell the truth. She has no reason to

unravel in the doctor’s office, no sudden fits of

viciousness and rage. She does the right thing even

when no one is looking. I envy her timeline, the

x-axis aligned. Somehow I grow more twisted, each

year eluding guilt with skill. It’s easiest to pluck

zinnias if you don’t look them in the face.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Natasha Rao is the author of Latitude, which was selected by Ada Limón as the winner of the 2021 APR/Honickman First Book Prize. The recipient of a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, she has also received fellowships from Bread Loaf, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Community of Writers. Her work appears in The Nation, American Poetry Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MFA from NYU, where she was a Goldwater Fellow. She is currently Co-Editor of American Chordata. 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
                                           Henri Rousseau, La Bohémienne endormie (The Sleeping Gypsy). 1897, oil on canvas. 
                                                      

Comments

[Geoffrey Himes]

Like the narrator, the poem itself shapeshifts into different animals to meet the moment. Nicely done.

[Don Berger]

A remarkable journey! I can't get over how Natasha assigns herself the considerable restriction of abecedarian, which might prompt a poet to fly all over the place, and manages to stay on an unbelievably compelling beam of autobiographical urgency. The form allows her astonishing turns, surprises (and what surprises!), but it seems also as though there isn't any restriction at all, no call for adhering to the alphabet as the speaker moves down the page. Bravo to you Natasha, and to your Terence, eminent curator!

[Terence Winch]

Don: thanks for that insightful comment.

A new comment from “Don Berger” was received on the post “Natasha Rao: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]” of the blog “The Best American Poetry”.

Comment:
A remarkable journey! I can't get over how Natasha assigns herself the considerable restriction of abecedarian, which might prompt a poet to fly all over the place, and manages to stay on an unbelievably compelling beam of autobiographical urgency. The form allows her astonishing turns, surprises (and what surprises!), but it seems also as though there isn't any restriction at all, no call for adhering to the alphabet as the speaker moves down the page. Bravo to you Natasha, and to your Terence, eminent curator!

Commenter name: Don Berger
Commenter email: [email protected]
IP address: 73.213.31.53
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[Bill Nevins]

Brilliant very serious playful trip down the alphabet line of life and alternative fantasy lives.
What a grand poem this is. Thanks, Natasha and Terence!

[Terence Winch]

Bill---thanks for the comment.

[Cindy Hochman]

A well-written and masterful abecedarian, Natasha. "Birth control or the moon," indeed! These are not easy to do and you nailed it with creativity and humor. I enjoyed this poem very much!

[lally]

ditto to what don said

[Clarinda]

All I can say is Wow! Plus I didn’t realize the poem was abacedarian on first two readings, which is a true compliment. IMHO, form (I love it btw) should not be the first thing the reader notices

[Sr. Leslie]

I love this poem…the rhythm …pace…flow…And goes so well with Rousseau’s The Sleeping Gypsy…one of my favorites! (And Ada Limon is another favorite)…The 3 complement each other and merge and shift… Thanks Terence! And thanks Natasha!

[Grace Cavalieri]

Atonement enough by writing this
Because I love it
Can you understand that

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Leslie.

[David Lehman]

Wonderful poem in a form I love. Great Henri Rousseau, too.

[Jefferson Carter]

The form is dum(b), having nothing to do with rhythm or movement down the page or heightening one's experience of the piece.
The mock-confessional content also irritates. "I'm so awful, but love me anyway!" AND, getting picky here, "knelt naked in front of not-you, have LAID in unfamiliar beds..."? Somehow, basic usage errors undermine one's trust in the poet.