Oceanic Response

            Throughout Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s book of poetry, I felt a lot of longing that was communicated through connections to the ecology of the ocean. In the poem When Lucille Bogan Sings “Shave ‘em Dry Nezhukumatathil writes:

“When I read him/the lyrics, the pink of my cheeks is like the pink/ of an orchid mantis. Just when you least expect it,/ the pretend flower will reach out and snatch a butterfly/from the air.” (Nezhukumatathil 16).

I love the way the writer weaves this metaphor into the poem, there’s this ecological logic that lines up with human and animal characteristics, exposing the reader to the reality that human and animal are connected, if not a like in some key manners.

            I think the longing feeling I osmosed through this book of poetry comes from the ways in which love is talked about in this collection as well. In the same poem, the writer finishes it with:

“When I say flower I mean how her song/blooms in the cicada-electric Mississippi night. When I say/ pink I mean nectar I mean a long kiss good and sweet” (Nexhukumatathil 16).

Love and relationship are aspects of her poetry that I thought were well worked out in this book.

            I found this same feeling in Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate One Second before Waking Up with the line at the end of the poem.

“One billion years: one ocean born./The time it takes for the last waxy smudge of me to stop loving/you.” (Nezhukumatathil 22). There is a love here that is no longer in the life of the writer, but how long does it take to get over someone? And is there ever a right time? It seems like this ‘right time’ seems mythic. This poem was also about time and I thought it was interesting that it also seemed like commentary on the decline of the environment’s health or just how long it takes for natural things around us to take place.

The writer also had sections taken from reviews of natural wonders of the world like Niagra Falls and The Great Wall of china. I get so frustrated with people who leave bad reviews like that! It seems they just want every little thing to bend towards their wishes, if not then it was a horrible time. We saw that in the man who said he failed in front of his wife so he would never go back. And even though he stated other reasons why he didn’t enjoy the experience, that was definitely the crux of it. It’s commentary on the temporality of natural wonders and the loss of that wonderment, via social construct it seems.

There were so many metaphors that used the ocean in this book, and I really appreciated them! Even mythologizing some creatures like a mermaid. We also get a reoccurring metaphor dealing with the body of a jelly fish, and how the detached parts can still sting.