Winter in Fargo - Rodney Nelson (Ravenna Press)

Today's book of poetry:
Winter in Fargo.  Rodney Nelson.  Ravenna Press.  Spokane, Washington.  2016.

Rodney Nelson only uses English as a template because these poems are in a whole new language.  Today's book of poetry was in after about three poems, hooked by the simple beauty of Nelson's accomplishment.  Winter in Fargo is all about place and Nelson takes us all firmly to Fargo.

Winter has never quite been like this before.  Winter in Fargo dials into a collective unconscious where we are comfortable with Nelson's unique vision.  The reader transported, lulls and rolls onto the crisp white landscape, and discovers it ripe with new mystery.

Candelmas

northern prairie had not thralled me

yet even on the cross-quarter

day I would not have wanted to

be any other where

                   I had

taken to Flagstaff and Yuma

and Petaluma easy in

winter and would have liked to try

the time in any one of them

again

                   but when the sun came up

on the cross-quarter day to ten

below and showed that prairie had

moved into town I wanted the

white and still and would not have been

any other where anytime

💫💫💫

Winter in Fargo is strong and slow, almost languorous, so Today's book of poetry is thinking Keith Jarrett, The Köln Concert.  Slow and languorous until the all consuming sweep of it blows over you like a snow squall.

Rodney Nelson has his own smooth.  These poems had instant cred here in the Today's book of poetry offices.  Milo, our head tech, said it felt like Cormac McCarthy without the obvious violence.  Kathryn, our Jr. Editor, thought Nelson's Winter in Fargo reminded her of the thickly layered canvases of London artist Ron Martin.

Groping and Meditating on a Confusion of Shapes

Ron Martin

Courtesy of the Canada Council Art Bank

The Ron Martin painting shown is huge, several feet wide and several feet high.  Martin's monochromatics contain unique depths and Rodney Nelson makes us feel as though we are in a new world, with new horizons, new nightfalls.

Of Gwendolyn Macewan

age and a river flood in

childhood we had in common

                      same river and flood

                      but when

a Canadian mentioned

the name I did not read on

may have noted an inward

fixity that I lacked

                       her

Bohemian Embassy

in Toronto was part of

my San Francisco and I 

leant towards cabalas too if

never the Cabala

                        I

would have taken any

                                    Earth-

                                    Light

          over the

                                    Afterworlds

that she went into dying

by her own vodka at the

moment almost I quit it

and we did not get to have

in common the age I am

now or the historical

tried-and-untrue one out there

                        I

doubt that she affected

what I wrote and she would not

have read it but another

look at her work reminds me

of the much I have not known

                        not to believe

                                        that she has

                                        yielded all her mystery

                     to

                                        admit there is something

                                        else you cannot name

                     in that

land or the inward country

I have yet to follow to

we had that other time in

common

                     maybe a shadow

💫💫💫

Today's book of poetry is almost always going to pay special attention to any poet who gives special attention to Gwendolyn MacEwen.  When Today's book of poetry first became truly enamoured with poetry it was through Earle Birney's great poem David that opened the door, but the next thing we read was beautiful Gwendolyn's The Armies of the Moon.  Today's book of poetry was enthralled.  Also, Gwendolyn was once married to Saint Milton of Acorn, yet another reason to hold MacEwen in the highest esteem.  Gwendolyn MacEwen is Canadian Poetry Royalty in the offices of Today's book of poetry.

Rodney Nelson nodding Gwendolyn's way is a strong indicator to Today's book of poetry of the granite like base Nelson is standing on, he has built Winter in Fargo from a formidable foundation.  Perhaps his diction is from an older time, perhaps from a generation yet to come - all Today's book of poetry knows is that it is enthralling.

Snow in April

not the right look or smell to the two-week

mild but we had not wanted to let on

and when cold hit again we put out more

suet because what had only seemed to

go away could only seem to return

                       the

river upped and would be greatening

anyhow but we knew the prairie was

still in town and did not want to let on

💫💫💫

Rodney Nelson's embrace of the natural world, his intimate interaction with the world he names still doesn't hide his history, he has seen violence, the horrors men can inflict on other men.  Yet Winter in Fargo is a celebration of a particular physical geography/and an exploration of the language of the prairie.

Rodney Nelson's Winter in Fargo is wildly entertaining restraint of the first order.

Rodney Nelson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rodney Nelson began as a poet long ago but turned to fiction and drama writing in order to make a living outside of the classroom.

raveenapress.com 

761

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Groping and Meditating on a Confusion of Shapes 

Groping and Meditating on a Confusion of Shapes