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Title: Up at two
Hanging Loose Press
Item Number: 9780914610892
Number: 1
Product Description: Up at two
Universal Product Code (UPC): 9780914610892
WonderClub Stock Keeping Unit (WSKU): 9780914610892
Rating: 4/5 based on 2 Reviews
Image Location: https://wonderclub.com/images/covers/08/92/9780914610892.jpg
Weight: 0.200 kg (0.44 lbs)
Width: 6.100 cm (2.40 inches)
Heigh : 8.900 cm (3.50 inches)
Depth: 0.200 cm (0.08 inches)
Date Added: August 25, 2020, Added By: Ross
Date Last Edited: August 25, 2020, Edited By: Ross
Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
$99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub (9297 total ratings) |
Ankush Mondal
reviewed Up at two on July 17, 2019Hilda Raz and Poetry of Transition
I was unprepared for how excited I was to read Hilda Raz's collection, Trans and the way her clear writing made me want to jump up a write a poem. Where the narrative poems in her collection are captivating as to give the impression of a firsthand experience, the lyric poems glow with associative connections and non-linear constructions that leave the reader contemplating deeper implications. Raz has a way of constructing a fleshed out poem upon a skeletal form of essential details. That is, the extraneous and the obvious are left for the reader to supply. As a result, her poems are expansive, reaching beyond their subject matter to live and breathe outside of the context of the collection. Equally astonishing is how Hilda Raz, the person, effectively disappears from these poems leaving only a powerful elixir of emotion and quandary.
While the prominent subject of the collection is Raz's adult child's sex change, many other kinds of transitions are represented. These transitions are loosely organized into four parts, each of which is headed by a definition of the prefix "trans." The first part is prefaced with Oxford English Dictionary's first sense of trans: "With the sense across, / through, over, to or on / the other side, beyond / …from one person, / state or thing to / another." Because each definition and senses of the prefix are only subtly different from one another, the essence of the meaning or sense must be derived from the poems contained within each respective section. The first section, for example, flirts with denial and avoidance that comes early in processing information that is difficult to accept. It is a stage that is crucial in the journey toward acceptance but also one in which many people find themselves stuck. The poems in this section reflect shock, resistance and truth seeking, all of which are present in the poem "Drought: Teaching, Benedict, Nebraska." Told from the perspective of Merce, this poem represents the speaker's attempt to normalize a life-altering event by sharing stories with others who have survived equally shocking events. Merce advises her audience "don't get too attached to any of 'em" (1) because "you might lose them"(2). Perhaps she means her four-year old grandson, or perhaps she means any and all family members, for she next retells the extraordinary tale of the day she lost her husband. In the unmistakable tone and cadence of a Midwestern woman, Merce describes how she came home "from town, some fool party / or other, to find her husband lying on the floor / under the kitchen table." As if this weren't enough, Merce goes on to say that a "tornado / come right after"(7-8) causing neighbors, relatives, and friends to come running for the only storm shelter in the area, which is apparently on Merce's place. It is not till the end of the poem that we learn the speaker "is just up from an operation" (33), which suggests the speaker is bonding with Merce over life tragedies (and confirms that this book is about more than just a sex change operation). While it isn't explicitly stated, I feel like the speaker's operation is a result of breast cancer (this is also suggested in the Wonder Woman poems). Both operations and scar imagery are repeated throughout the collection and seem to signify a commonality between the speaker and her post-op son.
The second part of the book considers trans as a verb and can be characterized by poems that are truth-seeking. "Teach me" goes the refrain in "Secrets," while poems like "Heart Transplant" and "Footnotes" suggest further information gathering. "Trans," the climax of the collection, illustrates an epiphanic moment in the speaker's journey and occurs during a therapy session. "What do you care, she asked / at last, letting me get the good / from my hundred-dollar therapy time. / She's still your daughter" (1-4). When the speaker retorts "Son you mean, you old biddy" (13) and begins crying "a good ten bucks worth of earth time" (14) the reader understands this indignation as a sign of acceptance. The speaker is defending her child and anyone talking about this child's change better get it right! This defensive act is really a gesture of acceptance and a sign that the speaker has rediscovered her unconditional love for her child.
Section three is concerned with the adjectival sense of trans and is not at first obvious in its intent. The poems all address different aspects of the speakers' experience and are concerned with recalling lost things and the cyclical nature of life. I've decided that this section is dealing with other ways of describing loss often associated with transition and represents the speaker coming to terms with loss. Lost sleep, lost relatives, lost jewelry, being lost, and lost identity. Gender identity in particular is the subject of the poem "Women & Men." While most of the poem seems to explore the paths women can chose in life, the introduction of a man walking a dog in the second stanza serves as a turn that leads the poem in a different direction. When the woman kneels to pet the dog, the man says "'He would love to jump on you,'" which is a very threatening thing to say to a woman on the street. The poem concludes with the woman telling the man "I'd be afraid." This poem epitomizes how quickly encounters between men and woman can become something unintended, even threatening, often as a result of some projection on the part of the man. The experience seems to undermine all of the poem's previous contemplation over what a woman can be with what a woman can be reduced to.
The fourth section of the book means to address trans "With the sense of beyond, surpassing, transcending" and begins with a lovely prose poem titled "Hello" in which the speaker greets a multitude of items. It marks a moment in which a sense of acceptance has been achieved. The most interesting series of poems in this section are the four that focus on Wonder Woman as their subject. The first is a list poem, and Raz has an interesting way with lists. Unlike many others I have read, the items on her lists are often only loosely connected. In this particular list, Raz incorporates images from previous poems in the collection and uses images that will recur in the Wonder Woman series. For example, along with other aspects of Wonder Woman's costume, her bracelets come into question repeatedly. What do they cover? Vulnerability? Perfume? Scars from a suicide attempt or self-mutilation? Legs, too, are an important recurring image: "Your legs work, don't they? (1) (which also appears in "Tough" from the first section of the book) and "Don't tangle your legs in a cape" (22) both from "Wonder Woman's Rules of the Road" and "Flaunt your legs. They work, don't they" (8) and "Your legs work, don't they"(11), both from "Wonder Woman's Rules of the Road - 1962". Really, the Wonder Woman poems are inextricably connected to "Tough" and I love the way they frame the rest of the collection. I think the speaker is realizing here that she is Wonder Woman, and is discovering that that body parts do not determine gender. The absence of a breast, for example, does not remove femininity just as the presence of breasts does no instill femininity. Further, I am again reminded of abstract art when I read these poems. Like abstract art, they are bold, aggressive, and meant to trigger emotional and visceral responses in the audience. "Imagine Wonder Woman with one breast" (70). Wow.
Trans is filled with a multitude of characters: two sons, a daughter-in-law, at least one grandchild, students, neighbors, friends, and deceased relatives. As a result, it is sometimes difficult to work out which son or relative is the subject of a poem. With close reading, however, the connections become clear, and this collection is worth multiple readings.
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