Must-Read Poetry: Fall 2023
October
the delicacy of embracing spirals by mimi tempestt
The second collection from the California poet, treats the page as a cinematic space; lines dance down and across the page with beautiful abandon–the poems transition into each other hypnotically, loose delineations between where each work begins and ends that suits the flow and tone so well. tempestt’s language is blunt and vivid, weaving encounters with violence alongside the more mundane moves of life alongside critiques of the craft that makes up the book itself; she writes, “today…/i’m just a fat Blackpoet waits in line for their 15 minutes”. The title poem, “the delicacy of embracing spirals,” appears near middle—an astonishing feat, long and winding with formal shifts on each pagethere is an enormity, reflected in the language itself—”i forgot to laugh during the descent”, bolded, a subtitle within the poem; it continues, phrases down the center of the page—“the (in) sane self / the same questions / towards an all-caps prose-block reset at the bottom of the page—”THE CHILD WIELDS AN ENTITY OF FURY THROUGH GRITTED TEETH:” and back to the short, centered lines. I love this poem for all that it encapsulates what had come before it, how fully it creates a voice that echoes for the reader. The poem that follows, “when there’s no one left to love, love on me” is a stunning, vulnerable epistolary piece; mighty italics, justified across two pages, starkly filling in all of the blank space we had been so attuned to prior. It is another reset for the reader, an act break, shifting the arc forward but never deterring focus.
