ODES TO THE ORDINARY

A collection of free-verse poetry that aims to locate the hearts of everyday things.

Benson-Scott organized her book into six parts by subject, including odes to “Inclement Weather,” “Trees,” “Abandoned Things,” “Animals,” “Travel,” and “Strong Women.” In many poems, the speaker interacts with her subject, allowing herself to be stirred by its inherent nature. The fleeting moments between the cessation of a storm and stillness are a reminder to appreciate clarity in the chaos of life in “Lake Champlain After a Storm”: “it’s too easy to forget this lucidity, this moment / when the horizon appears once more, so importantly before you / too easy to give in to the undertow of some private despair.” The poem “Ode to the Present Moment” is poignantly placed in the “Abandoned Things” section, acknowledging the human tendency to concentrate attention on the past and future, rather than live in the present: “Why do we want so much? / When everything is right here?” The poems effectively render ostensibly banal things worthy of close examination, and they find beauty and complexity in objects and experiences usually taken for granted. For example, “What to Do with an Ex-Boyfriend’s Books” considers the mixed feelings that accompany an abandoned relationship with humor: “You consider keeping them on your shelves, for him to borrow.” In other poems, the speaker begins as an observer and ends as a participant in her subject’s life: “When I approach, you look straight at me, a faint plea in the endless liquid / of your eyes.” Other poems are dedicated to what the subject can teach us, for example, in “Ode to Niagara Falls”: “I want to live like this, in a miasma of / mist, an ether of dreams.” Some lines and stanzas feel overcrowded with adjectives, as though the speaker is searching for the right way to honor the subject; however, this also encourages readers to appreciate details of things that often go unnoticed.

A perceptive set of poems that find the extraordinary in the ordinary.