April

by Sara Nicholson

A Third Collection of Poems from the Visionary Imagination of Sara Nicholson. Deadpan, heartfelt, and everything in between, Sara Nicholson is a reluctant mystic who can both make us laugh and point us toward magical truths within a single poem. Her third collection of poems, APRIL, is filled with the perverse and the sacred, whether the subject is art, love, or sex, whether itís ancient or contemporary. Nicholsonís interests are timeless, and by the end of April , the reader may be convinced that they've brushed up against a somewhat strange and singular poet who is inventing a new way of seeing specifically for them. "Intimate and expansive, with dazzling wit and music throughout, Nicholson's poems fit the stars, the sun, the trees, and their sap in the same frame."--Michael Andor Brodeur, The Boston Globe "Nicholson wields the authority of archival rhythms and the forceful syntax of a logician, but she constantly attaches these certainties to a wildness of premise and a brevity of instead of self, ruled utterance; instead of help, poetry."--Geoffrey G. O'Brien, Public Books Poetry.

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2023

Reviews

[Tom Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorites: " To the Committee," "April," and "To C." At least those were very accessible. All the poems are complex and require re-reading I think. I guess it's never fair to rate a poetry collection based on one reading.

[Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Think of all the physical and mental activities involved with laying out a tablecloth, smoothing it out on the table, and then laying a picnic blanket across that. And then there are textbooks for math, maybe some Xerox'ed chapters on infinity, because a lot of people have a lot to say about infinity, and everything said about it carries an irony, like if a fair definition is all about reasonably encompassing an idea, and the idea is literally limitlessness, then what are definitions? And Nicholson’s poems manage that fair negotiation between earnestness and wonder and irony, so they’re conversant. Maybe the main point of these poems is to be conversant, both in the conversational way, she's conversant with the reader, and in the erudite way, she's conversant with a lot of Western knowledge, so talking with her feels limitless, because her understanding of the world draws on a broad context of others' understandings. OMG.

The experience is like reading this combination of Marianne Moore and Jessica Laser. Both these poets take me to this moment where I feel like my brain is a single cell organism, and their poems keep hole-punching into the cell membrane, and the sensation is like me saying to myself, "Wait, there's even more outside this??" Their work is like a science of untethering sense so you see how much more sense the world can make. And Nicholson takes me to this place, but it feels so casual. Maybe Moore and Laser take me into the library so we're walking among books. Nicholson and I are just taking a walk in the park. So that feeling of walking, being in conversation with someone, a good friend or a new acquaintance. But you're involved and engaged and dimly aware there are all these trees everywhere.

That's reading Nicholson. Cognizant of the natural order, while also being this personalized statement about natural order. And she's going to observe to you, "Wow. Sorry I keep talking about the natural order and stuff, isn't is so ridiculous that poets always think they know anything about the natural order?" And you're thinking, but you, Sara Nicholson, are a poet, and I like listening to what you say about the natural order, and maybe this mix of self-effacement and cynicism, playing into irony, is performative, or it's just Nicholson's personality, or it's registering the poet's genuine humility before such large topics, and it's absolutely not clear where you should read it. Like read the longer poem, "The Goatherd and the Saint," and look at that painting with Nicholson. And think of how looking at a painting can be like a natural order in your body, and I think you'll understand how Nicholson can occupy all these stances and attitude toward knowing but telling you that she doesn't all the way know.

[Zoe Tuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as people said it would be! Master of the double turn and the daisy chain. I feel slightly guilty that I cannot unsee the cover as a drawing of Greta Thunberg.

[Emily Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went to her reading/maybe a launch like a year ago and got the book and read most of it, then put it down until this week, when I read it again and finished. In the first half of the book I don't understand the punctuation/capitalization/line break logic (it is very formal to me, each line begins with the first word capitalized, but the lines have punctuation, often in the middle of a line but sometimes at the end...I'm not sure why I find this so hard to read, as maybe it is quote unquote correct, but it trips me up every time!). But there's a long poem at the end, "Lives of the Saints," broken up in prose blocks (paragraphs) that is so killer.

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

“April” , “to C.” , and “Ten Lyric Pieces” 💖💖💖

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is an art history majors wet dream. poetry that requires research every other line is ✨overcompensating✨

[cy · Rating 5 out of 5]

whoops also didn’t mean to rate this one but i loved it too much i forgot

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me.