Many Voices in One in “Another Woman” https://ift.tt/TZ4uCPK
Coming to terms with one’s own place in the world is difficult enough, but to take one’s ontological conundrum and turn it into artistic expression can sometimes be an endeavor that results in wildly inaccurate expressions of the human condition. This, however, is not the case with Hannah Bonner’s poetics in Another Woman, which comprises poems that explore what it means to be the self or another (usually a historical or literary female figure, as the title suggests), whether at the end of a romantic/sexual relationship or in relationship with the conflicting voices of self-doubt and reason in one’s own head. Bonner allows the reader into that headspace in four progressive sections, framed by a prologue and an epilogue, to illustrate the journey from recognizing and admitting the relationship’s demise to unrelenting heartbreak and self-degradation to infidelity and unsteady healing. And while blank space is often nothing more than a necessity, this collection is made stronger with those paused moments between poems and sections to allow the reader to grapple with each phase.
Bonner uses brevity in such a way that the form becomes part of a metaphor. Even though many current poets have abandoned the centuries-old art of succinct, pithy wordsmithing for more modern discursive style, there are moments in these pages that pay homage to a history of concise expression of thought. For instance, the poem “Marriage” is composed of a minimal four lines:
The sun floats through me
like a young bride in a coffin.
Dust up the dirt road,
and all the way back down.
A complex array of emotional and psychological states are expressed here, the breadth of which can only be known to the poet/speaker; however, I understand the effectiveness of quick tonal shift from the first line to the end of the second — a mere, though effective, expression of diction. Bonner follows that with a physical push and pull — movement one way (up), then the other (down). As the opening poem to the first section, these lines provide an energy that informs the entire collection.
These poems, however, reach unexpected heights for such a well-worn subject as the loss of an emotional/physical connection. This work is elevated by its imagery and diction (such as distinctive verb choices), but it is even further enhanced by the speaker’s understanding of self through others; specifically, learning through the history of women, whether of mythology, antiquity, or more recent account. Bonner invites Lot’s wife (Ado or Edith in some Jewish traditions) — the disobedient, and, thus, punished woman; Dido — the queen whose lover was forced to leave her; and Mary — a figure between secular and sacred love. There is also Linda Kasabian — a woman brainwashed to love; Karen Carpenter — a woman who suffered severe self-image issues; Simone Weil — a woman (according to biographer Richard Rees) who “died of love”; and Aphrodite — the mythological epitome of love itself. While these women are mentioned only briefly, they help guide this collection through its necessary evolution.
And still, it is economy of language that Bonner employs that keeps us from any kind of maudlin expression or overly emotional state. In the poem, “Disclosures,” the poet speaker gives us “the orchard winged / in green.” Not only does this phrase leaf out every tree across the landscape, it also reminds us of the birds that could be hidden within. And in the same poem, the concluding image, “flower / twisting into fruit,” reminds us that while change can be ugly, even painful, there is purpose beyond our initial discomfort. And a line that has great impact across these pages appears in the poem, “From Lot’s Wife.” The speaker here says, “No one will tell me how to be forgiven,” which astonishes the reader to remember the poet who works through her many speakers to connect the entire collection.
The breadth of these poems opens us to the resiliency and strength of a woman’s voice. These are poems that desire to “speak achingly / and to live” (“In Spite Of”). But as Bonner notes in the poem, “Cosmogony,” “no part of the day // lasts long enough / to hold it.” There is an admission not just to the woman/women in these well-crafted works, but also to anyone who must come out the other side of a relationship we thought we would perish without, and the way it consumes us is only “a flame encircling the wick” (“Another Ending for Aphrodite”). While the flame may be extinguished, the wick can be relit.
POETRY Another Woman
By Hannah Bonner
EastOver Press
August 13, 2024
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