I was reminded of Niina Pollari’s stunning book of poetry Path of Totality when the solar eclipse occurred earlier this year. This ominous phrase–which describes the area of Earth where the eclipse could be seen–haunted the news cycle for days. I had COVID at the time, and was only able to view the phenomenon on YouTube from my couch in a stupor. Earlier that month, I had heard someone in a mental health webinar describe the 2017 eclipse as the only time in his life he’d felt deeply connected to all of humanity, and I was curious to discover if I would have a similar experience when plunged into darkness with all mankind. But it’s not the same watching it on TV.
Paradoxically, the experience of grief can be strangely connective: as though some dark figure steps out of the shadows at the moment of loss, nods at you with profound knowing, then cuts the fabric of the universe with a knife, parts the curtains of existence, and shows you the clockworks whirling in the midnight sky.
Niina Polaris’s book, written in the wake of losing her child at birth, fearlessly jumps into the complicated altered state that is grief: that endless data processing, the ruthless churn. Many of the of poems are comprised of single, declarative lines such as:
Everything powerful
Enough to destroy you
Is right here in this poem
And you are so puny
Grief is like a taxi cab driving through the city in the dead of night, looking for…someone. And these poems too seem to be engaged in their own kind of search, while at the same time they read as transmissions (instructions?) being received from deep space, from the poet’s own subconscious, or perhaps from the lost beloved.
By far the best book of poetry I read in 2023.
— Leah Rae is a poet and an archivist. A graduate of the UBC Creative Writing Program, she was one of the creators of Poetry is Dead magazine. Her work has been published in The Antigonish Review, Event, PRISM international, SAD Magazine, Room, and Geist.
You can find Leah Rae's poem "Coquitlam" in Issue 301 Autumn 2024. Order the issue now:
Order Issue 301 - Autumn 2024 (Canadian Addresses)
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