By Emily Schulten
White Pine Press 2024
The striking cover of this poetry collection, a photograph titled “A Boat Stranded Near Key West, Florida” by tmckinley from Shutterstock, is a beautiful, slightly ominous thing, and it is only a small clue to the contents that follow. Many of the poems do have strong ties to Key West, which is no surprise when we read that Emily Schulten is the Poet Laureate of that island city. What is surprising is how widely these poems range, whether tied to the island or straying off into other territories.
From the first poem “Ode to Fetal Sharks in Jars” we get a sense of the author’s ability to see, with empathy, through the eyes of another person, a person named Dakin. We assume that this is someone close to the author. This poem that speaks of sharks also, at the same time, examines the commercialization and development of the area and its effects upon the natural beauty and easy lifestyle of recent times. This is the opening poem of a section of six moving pieces that look closely at the history of Key West, and its people, its development, and the ecological damage it has suffered.
The second section in the collection makes a big jump to unusual poems about love. Ms. Schulten has the ability to approach her subjects in some oblique ways. “Telling it slant” may not be her mantra but she often brings the practice into play. She focuses as much on the possible dangers and difficulties that may arise in a loving relationship as she does in the beauty and joy she hopes to find. The opening poem of the sequence is called “Lovebirds” though we find that one of the birds in the cage does not fit the affectionate stereotype. Familial love is looked at in “Love Poem, Interment” another poem with a decidedly slant approach. In a poem called “Multilingual” the narrator hears her lover speaking fluent Spanish, something he can’t do when awake. She imagines him speaking to a woman in a past life when the language was fully his own, and the poem becomes an examination of trust. There are several other fascinating pieces in this section.
The third and fourth sections are particularly interesting, intimate, and personally daring as they reveal so much about deeply private relationships. Section three contains a series of poems called “Motels We Stay in While Trying to Get Pregnant” followed by the names of the motels. These three poems are sonnet-like in structure, rhythm, and final couplets that finish each piece with a kind of open-ended sense of incompletion. The fourth section begins with a series called “The Bride Poems” each one carrying a metaphor rich in intimacy.
Finally, the fifth section of the collection brings us back to the island, coming full circle, though not without nuance and intriguing segues. Connections are something the reader will find in abundance in this volume as the poet weaves stories and symbols and wonderful language into a truly satisfying example of high quality, highly readable, poetry. This is a book that will call the reader back again and again as inspiration and as an example of fine writing.
jim bourey is an old poet who lives on the edge of the Adirondacks. His books include Out There and Back Again and The Distance Between Us, both from Cold River Press. He also co-wrote Season of Harvest with poet Linda Blaskey, published by Pond Road Press. He is organizer of the DAC reading series in Malone, NY. His work has appeared in many journals and anthologies. He can often be found reading aloud in dimly lit rooms. jim lives in Dickinson Center, NY with his wife Linda.
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