I Mean - Kate Colby (Ugly Duckling Presse)

Today's book of poetry:
I Mean.  Kate Colby.  Ugly Duckling Presse.  Brooklyn, New York.  2015.

The title poem in Kate Colby's effervescent  I Mean is a stunning long list poem.  My favourite in quite a long while.  The poem "I Mean" comes in at a staggering 60+ pages and it never drags for a second.  If this poem were a train it would be on time at every station.

"I Mean" is one honking big and entertaining poem, a delight from start to finish.  A feast.  For dessert I Mean, the book, has four short essays that further serve Kate Colby's nefarious purposes. Colby wants us to know that she can create light.  "I Mean" not only illuminates, it takes some of the weight off of the world.

Today's book of poetry read Colby's essays and you should too, as Publishers Weekly said in their review, "The essays also display an erudition that can be both heady and playful."  But Today's book of poetry is going to concentrate on Colby's poem "I Mean".

from I Mean

I mean a black grid on a white field

and the fuzzy gray dots where the lines cross

that you can see but not look at

I mean "slippage"

I mean the slip-proof dots

on the baby socks

I mean things for which

names may or may not exist

I mean there are names

for what you are and for who

I mean names for things

that don't or no longer exist

I mean kicking bones

down the stairs

they're in my way

I mean in the desert

I mean everything is contained

I mean bound

I mean imminent

I mean right now

I mean immanence

...

Our kick at the can is that Colby is quite literally searching for the "what" in "what gives meaning?"

Today's book of poetry believes that naming a thing gives it meaning and Colby is naming it all.

It's hard to share the enthusiasm of a reading experience but Kate Colby's long list poem "I Mean" was fresh on every page.  Apparently Colby's curiosity is as broad as her optimism.

from I Mean

I mean I want my circumference

and to eat it too

I mean to be bigger than you

I mean contain more

I mean mean more

I mean with infinite density

I mean singularity

I mean aleph-infinity

I mean on the largest scale

I mean ontogeny, phylogeny, the camera

panning out from microbe to cosmos

I mean cochlear recapitulation of seashells

I mean fractals and vice-versa.

Seaweed. Galaxies.

I mean it's a long shot

I mean what I thought was the ocean

is only my body

I mean either a vase or two faces

...

Our morning read was a lovely tag-team type affair where we just went round and round the room, each person in turn whipping off a page of "I Mean,"  It wasn't a race or a marathon but we all felt celebratory at the end.

Reading "I Mean" reminded Today's book of poetry of a feast he was lucky enough to attend in his youth.  The first course of several was a magical steamed soup called Chawanmushi.  It was like a custard in that it was solid on your spoon - but when you put it on our tongue it melted leaving both a subtle flavour and a cleansed palette.  No easy trick.  Kate Colby can burn with the best.

from I Mean

I mean well-named horror can

be beautiful

I mean Wilfred Owen's poems

are neither horrific nor beautiful

I mean can beauty be named

or made but not both?

I mean a name turns to stone

I mean I'm totally making this up

I mean I don't know how to be a poet

I mean I'm a rebar Medusa

I mean cursed with endless construction

I mean with the dangers of addition

I mean maybe beauty can only be made

in the mirror

I mean mugging, kissy-faced,

pluckily marching in place

in the corner

I mean facing into the corner

I mean I've talked myself into

I mean thought myself

...

Today's book of poetry was reading Don McKay's great long poem "Long Sault" (1975) yesterday and was reminded how grand the long poem can be.  Today we are here to tell you that Kate Colby's I Mean is a modern epic poem.  You just don't know it yet.  Colby's narrative provides a kaleidoscope gaze onto your world and mine.

She never flinches.

Kate Colby

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Colby is author of six books, including Unbecoming Behavior (UDP, 2008), The Return of the Native (UDP, 2011) and Fruitlands (Litmus Press), which won the Norma Farber First Book Award in 2007. She is a founding board member of the Gloucester Writers Center in Massachusetts and currently lives in Providence, where she was a 2012 fellow of the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts.

Kate Colby

 reading at Litmus Press Spring Book Party 6/10/11

Video: srk55krs

uglyducklingpresse.org 

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