Songs for Relinquishing the Earth

Shannon Hengen is an associate professor of English at Laurentian
University and the author of Margaret Atwood’s Power: Mirrors,
Reflections and Images in Select Fiction and Poetry.

The 29 poems that make up this elegiac volume describe a journey toward
an understanding that we must relinquish belief that we can ever fully
articulate meaning, or that we can stop trying. Desire and beauty on the
one hand and absence, loss, and death on the other are the points
between which this journey occurs, each necessary for comprehension of
the other.

In “Cashion Bridge,” we see that love becomes intertwined with the
things that we own and ultimately discard. In relinquishing them, we
know ourselves “failed, and singing.” In “Border Station,” we
see that all of our mistakes, including those that are destroying us,
“might have been human” though “not justifiable.” Compassion
thus comes with letting go.

By learning to relinquish the earth, we learn regret, and “if we
steel ourselves against regret / we will not grow more graceful, / but
less.” The way to regret begins in silence, these poems suggest, then
moves to stillness, then music, and finally words. Music, a defining
motif, compels us to sadness and helps us accept it. The first poem ends
“Open strings / are the name of that moment when you realize /
clearly, for the first time, / you will die.” The words of poetry and
philosophy bring some clarity to music’s intimations.

The depth of Zwicky’s insights is matched by the greatness of her
skill with language. Apt figures of speech give sensual appeal to ideas.
Careful diction enables much to be said in few words. Frequently these
poems take us to the edge of where the most profound meaning lies. Like
the original marathon runner quoted in one of the poems, we sense that
“this cannot be done,” but “he takes / the next step anyway.” We
appreciate the poet for doing so.

The least satisfying section may be “Kant and Bruckner: Twelve
Variations,” which replaces the intimacy of the rest of the volume
with cleverness. But even Zwicky’s cleverness is worthwhile.
Everything here deserves to be read patiently.