Our Andromeda

A poem s job is to be beautiful.A poem s job is not just to teach, but to make a reader eager to show up for class every day.A poem s truth should be at once stunningly obvious and blindingly original.A poem should make us happy to slow down and savor in a world of fast food writing.Reading a poem should only be work in the sense that some people are lucky enough to have jobs they love so much they d do them for free.Reading a poem should be the kind of workout that makes you feel shaky but stro [...]

I read this book of poetry collection again today, on Mother s Day As a rendering of motherhood, it is so primal and inventive and pissy I know I am his mother, but I can t quite click on the word s essential aspects, can t denude the flora or disrobe the kind of housecoat mother always is Something cunty, something used Shaughnessy loves words, their liquidity, playfulness, doubling, but she also mistrusts their naming of things The book is best when she is pressing on that mistrust and doublen [...]

Brenda Shaughnessy writes love poetry, I think Not romantic love poetry, exactly The long poem Our Andromeda which closes this volume and which lovingly imagines an alternate world where her son, Cal, who is seemingly disabled in some way and fragile, is heartbreakingly about a mother s love for her son But Shaughnessy is in love with the world around her, too Her poetry, while it recognizes the warts of the world, generously welcomes whatever she comes into contact with She acknowledges there m [...]

This third collection of Shaughnessy s is as sure and sharp as an archer s eye, and it finds its targets The mystery of love the bravery of living the hard won wisdom that comes from experience These poems feel deeply inhabited, soul making, celebratory.

Shaughnessy plays wonderful with sound Her poems beg to be read out loud She conveys very specific ideas and images in a punchy way, making you wonder how you never thought of that before She writes from a mother s perspective in this collection, and the title poem, over 20 pages long, is gripping, emotional, and beautiful Particular favorites include Streetlamps, To My Twenty Three Year Old Self, To My Twenty Four Year Old Self, To My Twenty Five Year Old Self, and To My Twenty Eight Year Old S [...]

I was introduced to Brenda Shaughnessy s Interior with Sudden Joy by my MFA mentor and I was immediately caught by her cleverness and inclination to blend philosophy with poetry While I enjoyed some poems in that collection, I tended to shy away by the big words she used Then, her next collection Human Dark with Sugar is accessible yet witty and spicy at the same time Her Our Andromeda gives me mixed feelings and I think I should give an overall 3.5 stars to this book My favorite section of the [...]

Fierce collection Lucid and gripping That loud hub of us, meat stub of us, beating us senseless There are always places, none of them mine Feelings seem like made up things, though I know they re not year after ancient, ridiculous year That s what you get for believing in aliens, for replacing our earhorn of plenty with a megaphone of corpsedust this world butted up against the next Whatever meaning the word itself is covering, like underwear, that meaning is so mere and meager this morning I ha [...]

A lovely book, rich in style One of the major themes parenting I find to be less powerful than the word play, rhyme, and sonic edge found in so many poems Some favorite lines A book that took too long to read but minutes to unread that is to forget An idea like a stormcloud that does not spill or arrive but moves silently in a direction Like a dark book in a long life with a vague hope in a wood house with an open door The books on the bookshelves are touching themselves like virgins But I ve ha [...]

I m torn between 4 and 5 stars on this one There were some poems, particularly closer to the beginning, that seemed damn near perfect in tone, language, sound and meaning Those alone seem worth 5 stars I struggled with the latter half of the book though Some of these intensely personal poems failed to grab me in, say, the way Jack Gilbert s work does The long poem, Our Andromeda, I wanted to love It s heartbreaking in its opening, but what seemed an attempt to sustain that level of intensity for [...]

I stumbled into the poetry of Shaugnessy via Cheryl Strayed s FB page, who recommended it I gave my daughter the middle name Andromeda so I am always interested when I see it chosen as a name for something else I wasn t prepared for the heart break and beauty of her poetry, especially the title poem Though I hate to draw comparisons namely because I hate it when people do that with my own writing , but I kept vibing Plath in her poems, seeing the flatness of blunt thoughts which are simultaneous [...]

There are lots of great poems in this book Shaughnessy s signature internal rhymes and personifications are engaging Like most collections the poems that are just OK are disappointing because I want to be wowed every time But enough deliver to make this highly recommended.What makes the book essential is the long title poem that concludes the book It is witty, painful, angry and exultant sometimes all at once Our Andromeda is a cry for escape to another galaxy where the stupid fact of human frai [...]

Good, but I sometimes felt that even these excellent poems could have gone a little deeper What I like about this book, though, is that even the pieces that appear to have common, everyday subjects, like Magi, have dark and sharp edges that leave one surprised without succumbing to gore or cheap thrills Her thoughts about parenting in poems like Hearth remind me of Sharon Olds.I hope this poet becomes famous.

I don t read a lot of poetry, and not contemporary poetry at all Perhaps I had my fill at workshops in my MFA program I find so much of contemporary poetry to be just poems about how hard it is to make a poem But these poems are About Things not just Abstract Things like Love or Justice or Loss though they are about them too , but about Things That Happened There is a SF nal quality to them that I liked as well Has happily put me on a poetry kick.

Our Andromeda was surprising and WONDERFUL It is a poetry collection that envisions a parallel existence of each of us in the Andromeda galaxy, somehow free of our Earthly prejudices and fears The writing is beautiful In particular, the last long piece about Shaughnessy s son is heart rending and really clear and sharp about her experiences with him It s a wonderful collection, highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this book I enjoyed the third section, Our Andromeda the most, and her poems to her younger self were particularly startling and resonant Shaughnessy pays such close attention to the sound of her poetry, rather than just the images they show, and is playful with her use of words in a way that made her poetry even enjoyable to read.

This was a good, highly readable, collection Interesting and fun play on language where nouns and verbs are used as different parts of grammar The classic themes are here, life and death, birth and dying, marriage and friendship All good The final very long poem, 22 pages, is amazing and needs to be read, no spoiler here.

This book and Metaphysical Dog by Frank Bidart were the only two collections of poetry in the New York Times, 100 notable books of 2013 I didn t particularly like or get into Bidart s book, but his one is quite skillfully written with unusual and creative word use that I found quite interesting and illuminating A great collection of poetry.

This 2012 book of poems is Shaughnessy s third book The long, title poemis extravagant with both sorrow and joy It concerns the birth of her sonwho suffered complications and may not be able to walk or talk The courageof this meditation is astounding The other poems do not shine as much Irecommend.

Cosmopolitan lets me down again That magazine has not recovered from the disaster of spring, 1882.

Holy shit This book destroyed me So full of pain and anger and love So raw and ugly and beautifully alive Holy shit.

the final poem of this book takes it from a 3 to a 4.

high points are suuuuper high shaughnessy makes me most swoony when she turns the music up to 12.

Shaughnessy s style is snarky yet daunting, on occasion, for a poet of my caliber I found myself laughing aloud one moment and then struggling to decipher the next This latest collection fluctuates from the real to the fantastical as she creates an alternate reality that takes place in the Andromeda Galaxy It corrects every wrong that she has endured and it climaxes in the last poem a 21 page title piece addressed to her disabled son, Cal It is a tell all about how he was born with brain damage [...]

Most of these poems just didn t make it through my thick skull The language is playful and energetic, but I m not super in touch with my emotions I don t trust them, really so all of this emotional flailing made me take a few mental steps back In language, I value clarity over style On those poems where she achieves both i.e the title poem Our Andromeda , I was with her all the way But there weren t quite enough of those to make me want to read .

The books on the bookshelves are touching themselveslike virgins But I ve had them from Why Should Only Cheaters and Liars Get Double Lives A middling collection, with some good lines here and there The closing poem, to her son, Calvin, was memorable.

Favorite poems are Card 12 the Hanged Man, I wish I Had More Sisters, and To My Twenty Four Year Old Self.

This book cut me open Raw In a good way I ve never read anything that so close to the bone described an experience so similar to my own.

Our Andromeda is heartbreakingly beautiful It s a collection of poems written by a woman whose son was disabled during a difficult childbirth She explores decision making and the idea of being content with the decisions you ve made and the alternate universes that exist where you ve taken an alternative route The poems are funny, sad and stick with you after you ve read them.

Almost quit after the first section, then read some nice pieces, then waited, then quit Midway, after a few Tarot card themed ekphrastic takes Dunno Probably worth a re take, but I erased it from the e reader Ars longa vita brevis, e t c.

I came to My Andromeda for personal reasons, having heard that some poems in the collection dealt with the circumstance of a difficult birth and its aftermath The concluding title poem is extraordinary a powerful, frank, angry, and deeply affecting tour de force about a mother, a father, and their son, as they seek abidance in an abruptly alien world, and find it in an imaginary universe Several other poems touch on the same subject, and though shorter are equally strong I was less persuaded by [...]