Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Messy Business of Bodies: Rachel Mennies' No Silence in the Fields

Just a quick update to share an excerpt from my review of Rachel Mennies' lovely e-chapbook No Silence in the Fields (Blue Hour Press, 2012). The full review, along with three others, is available over at Weave. You can read No Silence for free online.
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"Bodies are a central topic of No Silence; the fragility and rawness of people and animals: a cluster of cancerous cells, the delicate rib of a dead cat, a calf freezing to death. Loss surrounds the ill-fated story of the books main characters, M and V, a couple who sets up house in the aforementioned barn for the winter. Their story is told in multiple voices that alternate between M, V, and an omniscient speaker. Why they have come to the barn for winter is never addressed directly, but a simple guess is that they have no other place. The details leading up to their circumstances are less important than where they find themselves, however, as Mennies’ vivid images and lyricism weave a desperate tone through each poem, keeping the action in the present."

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