THE END OF SOMETHING by KATE GREENSTREET

EILEEN TABIOS Engages

The End of Something by Kate Greenstreet

(Ahsahta Press, Boise, ID, 2017)

Kate Greenstreet had me with her first page of words:

And from that opening into which I enthusiastically entered without trepidation (despite those doll’s eyelashes), I found words so moving, so affecting, I felt the dryness of my cheeks and imagined the opposite: I’d wept over the poems, poems like

I believe Greenstreet’s poems to be exactly what is often said about successful poems: that they are the distillations of entire worlds which become available in their entirety again to discerning (empathetic) readers. For instance, I could see writing a story—even a novel—informed by these few words:

But even the magnificent long poem contained within the book—I am tempted to call it a long poem by the numbering of the poem-sections—contains enough space for the reader to inhabit in multiple ways. I’m reminded of something Meena Alexander once said in an interview about how a poem can contain more than one door or window thorugh which the reader can enter to defined meaningful engagement. So that in this long poem, “section”s like

and

can be in the same poem and live together in harmony.

[The “reviewer” pauses. She thinks she hasn’t said anything particularly worthwhile. But she decides to have faith her admiration for the book and the extent of its resonance will be discernible and posts the review. The review, you see, aspires to be somewhat like Greenstreet’s poetry: “a way of sharing a secret without telling it.”]

*****

Eileen Tabios is the editor of Galatea Resurrects. Her 2017 poetry releases include five books, two booklets and eight poetry chaps. Most recently, she released MANHATTAN: An Archaeology (Paloma Press, U.S.A.), Love in a Time of Belligerence (Editions du Cygne/SWAN World, France), and THE OPPOSITE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA: Prime's Anti-Autobiography (The Knives Forks Spoons Press, U.K.). Her books have been released in nine countries and cyberspace. Her writing and editing works have received recognition through awards, grants and residencies. Her first 2018 book will be an edited anthology about the CDC Word "Ban" entitled EVIDENCE OF FETUS DIVERSITY (Moria Books/Locofo Chaps). More info about her work at http://eileenrtabios.com