Reviews

I often place books on hold at the library without noting where I heard of them or why I want to read them. This was one of those. So thanks, past-Me, for making a good choice. This was a collection I looked forward to picking up each morning.

Olzmann writes narrative poems in the style of letters (which, it could be argued, all poems are). He certainly has his corny, on-the-nose moments -- he is a writer of his time, after all -- but what sticks with you is the work's playfulness, its genuine curiosity, its honesty. It may be interesting to pair some of these poems with John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed.

From "Letter to the Person Who, During the Q&A Session after the Reading, Asked for Career Advice" (13)

If I could do it over, I'd suggest an entry level position
standing by a river bank,
or a middle management opportunity
winding like fog through the sugar maples of New England.

From "Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America" (79)

Tell me what it's like to live without
curiosity, without awe. To sail
on clear water, rolling your eyes
at the kelp reefs swaying
beneath you... To discover
something primordial and holy.
To have the smell of the earth
welcome you to everywhere.
To take it all in and then,
to reach for you knife.

My favorites were "Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America" (79), "Letter to William Shatner" (20), "Letter or Jennifer Chang and Evan Rhodes Regarding a Variation in the Fabric of Time (48), and "Letter to Matthew Olzmann from Ross White, Re: The Tardigrade"

books4days's review against another edition

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3.0

I heard "Letter Written While Waiting in Line at Comic Con" read by the author on the Ours Poetica YouTube channel, and loved it (especially the first stanza). It is, of course, far and away the best poem in this collection and the one that spoke to me the most, and made me think of people I cherish in my life and how I feel when I am with them.

I really liked this collection's premise and its connection to the postal service, and the idea that every poem is a letter to or from someone, sometimes to a person, to a canyon, to a car's radiator, to the future, from a flying saucer, or from the Roman Empire.

My other favorites in this collection were "Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America" and "Letter to Matthew Olzmann, Sent Telepathically from a Flock of Pigeons While Surrounding Him on a Park Bench in Detroit, Michigan.