The Trees The Trees Heather Christle Books
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Poetry. In THE TREES THE TREES, the follow-up to Heather Christle's acclaimed first collection, THE DIFFICULT FARM, each new line is a sharp turn toward joy and heartbreak, and each poem unfolds like a bat through the wild meaninglessness of the world.
"You get the impression of the oracle at Delphi trying her hand at stand-up or jamming the broadcast of the nightly news Christle's gift for welding surreal visions to living speech rhythms keeps unlocking new surprises, page after page. At least once per poem, you feel like the triple-bars just lined up in the slot-machine window, and you laugh or cry out."—John Darnielle
The Trees The Trees Heather Christle Books
I am still somewhat in shock. These poems are beautiful, funny and borderline mystic. There is a distinct and unpredictable rhythm to them. I bought this book on recommendation without even realizing that John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats was the one who wrote the blurb recommending it. He summarizes it better than I ever could:"You get the impression of the oracle at Delphi trying her hand at stand-up or jamming the broadcast of the nightly news: Christle's gift for welding surreal visions to living speech rhythms keeps unlocking new surprises, page after page. At least once per poem, you feel like the triple-bars just lined up in the slot-machine window, and you laugh or cry out."
If you like poetry you will like these poems. Highly recommended.
Highlights: "The Whole Thing Is the Hard Part," "Inside Terminal E," "Poem Consisting Entirely of Advice," "Soup Is One Form of Salt Water," "Trying to Return the Sun"(less)
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The Trees The Trees Heather Christle Books Reviews
Listening to Heather Christle read her poems (I watched this video on Youtube for a sense of her voice), it's hard to say anything particularly negative about her poetry—while the voice in her center-justified ramblings plays at flippancy and coy disregard for expectation, her public speaking seems so meek and inward facing that she might burst into tears at any moment.
That doesn't mean I'm going to pull my punches, but it did give me a different perspective on the voice her poetry was aiming for, and what my take on it might be as a result.
To be completely honest, I'm torn about The Trees The Trees. Getting halfway into the collection, I felt almost tangibly frustrated—through nothing other than intuition, it seemed to me like Christle was simply vomiting words onto the page and calling it poetry. Her diction is simple, almost rudimentary, and she ambles and jumps between subjects and off-camera allusions with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes she tries to be snarky. Sometimes she tries to be sincere. I take it, from the blurb on the back-cover, she's almost always trying to be funny, but I didn't find myself laughing at all. I was pretty much ready to abandon the collection when I stumbled into some of the poems in the middle.
From a poem entitled 'PARALLELOGRAPH'
"everything is possible / and not happening / to me in this plausible room / despite the five thousand ways you might reach me / the phone is not ringing"
Dang.
There are a few moments like this right in a row, and they were enough to make me sit up, catch my breath, and grapple with the idea that this book might have some force in it after all. 'THIS IS NOT THE BODY I ASKED FOR' presents, through simplicity and contrast, an almost Whitman-esque urgency in Christle's thoughts. "people / how they are all so tender / how they / love to just go walk around /... and it hurts me / and they / bathe their dogs". I felt like Christle was tapping me on the shoulder, going, "See? I do get it!"
Add a couple more of those and I was ready for this collection to become one of my favorite poetry books I've read this year.
But then it dialed back again.
Whether a product of happenstance, or fortuitous coincidence of personal resonance, only a few more poems in The Trees... hit me like those above. Christle very quickly drifted back into her detached rambling, and no matter how much close reading I did of any of her poems, I couldn't find the same enjoyment in that as I had the ones that seemed as though they actually had something to say.
I'm not sure if the fault is mine there. I'm ready to admit I may have vacillated between more and less receptive moods; but a good book of poetry grabs the reader regardless, and I felt again almost angry at the book in front of me as I neared the end.
Heather Christle is capable of great things, but it's obvious, even from her reading, that she doesn't seem to believe it herself. The way every poem in this collection was arranged in an identical fashion, the completely refusal to deviate into different forms, structures, moods, or ideas, turned me off investing in Christle's future work. There were moments of great poignancy inside The Trees..., but I'm not sure I'm willing to slog through forty pages of confusion in the future to find them again.
I do feel bad tho. I don't think, from the feeling she ekes out in her poetry, and her persona as a reader or artist, that Christle is anything but sincere in her poetry; indeed, that's probably the case with every poet ever alive (barring anomalous money-grubbing exceptions)—so, for that reason, I don't feel bad saying I didn't enjoy Christle's poetry as a whole. All object is in its own proof; this was a collection for me to read and evaluate, and I did that. Perhaps not the place to come to terms grappling with the worth of a work of art versus an artist; but, let it be said here and now, that I'd be happy to buy Heather a cup of coffee if I ran into her, and that I'd still willingly attend a reading to hear her meander over some sad clumps of verse, in the hopes that she might bless the crowd with one of her gems.
I just probably won't buy anymore of her books.
I ONLY GAVE THIS BOOK FOUR STARS BECAUSE I DO NOT THINK IT IS A VERY GOOD BOOK. HER POEMS PUBLISHED IN JOURNALS (PARTICULARLY "I CAN'T SWIM") ARE VERY GOOD, BUT THIS COLLECTION LEFT ME A LITTLE BORED. HOWEVER, IT IS NEVERTHELESS HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT. BUY IT!
Using this collection as a reference, I am unable to determine if Heather Christle is even capable of not saying pretty things every two seconds or less
Reading Christle is like being in a grade-school pushing circle; where even though you are getting constantly jerked back and forth, misdirected, made dizzy, and disoriented in a blur of colors, you will eventually find yourself on the ground, laughing. Her mastery of turns in this book really drives the effectiveness of her poetic style. Her poems have the ability to be hilarious, serious, about the mundane, and intellectual all at the same time. The fragmented form and line spacing/breaks give an initial feeling of suddenness or gasping as if each piece was spontaneously exclaimed; however, there is always an undercurrent of deep connection and feeling between the themes on which Christle is working. That being said, she's certainly a poet that teaches the reader how to read her work, but the payoff is absolutely worth any first-time confusion. She seems to encourage the reader to loosen up a bit and not be so concerned about any expectations of conventional narrative, while at the same time keeping your thoughts directed towards the poem in a "not-so-fast" kind of method. In her first poem, "That Air of Ruthlessness in Spring," she gives us the disclaimer, "I am just having a little fun...I want to show you something/ I don't care what/ I want/ you to look where I say," to which she definitely delivers. "The Trees The Trees" is an excellent work that wonderfully exhibits not only contesting of the traditional form and structure in a unique way, but also encourages the reader's participation in her work. In this sense, Christle's poetry is anything but exclusive or intimidating. I would recommend this book of poetry to anyone who wants to have a refreshing challenge to their narrative/poetic biases, and who wants to laugh while doing so.
I am still somewhat in shock. These poems are beautiful, funny and borderline mystic. There is a distinct and unpredictable rhythm to them. I bought this book on recommendation without even realizing that John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats was the one who wrote the blurb recommending it. He summarizes it better than I ever could
"You get the impression of the oracle at Delphi trying her hand at stand-up or jamming the broadcast of the nightly news Christle's gift for welding surreal visions to living speech rhythms keeps unlocking new surprises, page after page. At least once per poem, you feel like the triple-bars just lined up in the slot-machine window, and you laugh or cry out."
If you like poetry you will like these poems. Highly recommended.
Highlights "The Whole Thing Is the Hard Part," "Inside Terminal E," "Poem Consisting Entirely of Advice," "Soup Is One Form of Salt Water," "Trying to Return the Sun"(less)
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