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A review by jonscott9
Urban Tumbleweed: Notes from a Tanka Diary by Harryette Mullen
3.0
Harryette Mullen, a finalist for the National Book Award and various other accolades, does a fun and specific thing here, gazing on the "urban jungle" (from concrete to bluebells) with a tanka diary. That's based on the Japanese form of verse, with her stanzas numbering 30ish syllables each. There's talk of insects, animals, flowers aplenty, climate change, her fellow walkers, the human condition itself, and things both bucolic and sundry.
There's some ennui and malaise in the mix, and a few banal bits, though I think that was probably part of the point. Mostly these all-but-ephemeral vignettes have a thoroughly bearable lightness about them. I'll read more from this voice of poetry and prose.
Here are three faves:
"Would have said this purple clustered flower
looks like a burst of fireworks, but of course it's
the fireworks that imitate the flower."
(page 30)
"Clicking through images downloaded
from your camera. Those buskers haven't finished
playing, and already they're in your archive."
(page 50)
"Clinics displaying the five-leaf marijuana plant,
weeds sprouting up more numerous than
coffee shops with the mermaid logo."
(page 66)
There's some ennui and malaise in the mix, and a few banal bits, though I think that was probably part of the point. Mostly these all-but-ephemeral vignettes have a thoroughly bearable lightness about them. I'll read more from this voice of poetry and prose.
Here are three faves:
"Would have said this purple clustered flower
looks like a burst of fireworks, but of course it's
the fireworks that imitate the flower."
(page 30)
"Clicking through images downloaded
from your camera. Those buskers haven't finished
playing, and already they're in your archive."
(page 50)
"Clinics displaying the five-leaf marijuana plant,
weeds sprouting up more numerous than
coffee shops with the mermaid logo."
(page 66)