Every Inadequate Name.

Kim Fahner is a poet and the author of You Must Imagine the Cold Here.

The debut collection of poems by Nick Thran, Every Inadequate Name, is a thin volume that packs a poetic wallop. From musings on the often eschewed power of pop music to poems of farewell to a friend’s great uncle, there is a real sense that this is a person who writes poetry about a life that is vibrantly lived to the fullest. There is the reflection on the strength of Neruda’s words (and voice) in the poem “Thoughts While Driving a Stretch of Mountain Road, Listening to a Tape of Pablo Neruda Reading ‘Las Alturas de Machu Picchu’” when Thran writes that Neruda sounds like “he’s gargling / worried stones in his throat.” Thran weaves a second story into this piece, recalling a collision with a deer, and then in the final portion of the poem, writing “Driving, I often imagine colliding/with Pablo, or at least some crude form/of him.” What poet hasn’t dreamed of colliding with Neruda, in some way, shape, or form?

Shifting to speak of “Edgewater,” a beautifully poignant poem about aging and the process of accepting death’s imminent arrival, Thran writes with a heartbreaking voice: “Cough born of knowing a man / has to struggle. Cough born of choosing to stay / in spite of that …,” painting a vivid picture of a man who is trying to stop “the water from filling his lungs, his sleep.” The poet has an ease with language, an ability to capture the extraordinary aspects of the ordinary rhythms of life. In “The Bear Claw Tub” or “The Impossible Omelette,” there is a keen awareness of how powerful metaphor can be when it is used in an artful manner. In “Isolation Camp, a Letter,” a tree planter speaks of mosquitoes like “swarms of memories / of someone abandoned.”

The “Coastline Variation” series of poems, sprinkled throughout the book, seem frustrating to this reader. One wishes they were grouped in a single section, so that one could grasp a more holistic sense of their impact. Still, on their own, they are lovely gems that glitter throughout the collection. A stunning first collection for a young poet who, surely, will follow it up with others of equal artistry.