If not metamorphic, changed by geological pressure, then what? Iijima's newest book uses the long form, frequently in choral antiphon, to ask what kind of pressures exert change--as in the title poem, where war and human cruelty have turned even the kelp murderous--and what exactly is changed: sometimes words take on other forms before our eyes, sometimes sentence try on new endings in shameless view, and puns on popular culture poke through the deepest meditation. These poems truncate and disrupt narrative, borrowing now from the parataxis of renku, now from the verse-prose travelogue of haibun, but do not foreclose the possiblity of ephiphany; Iijima still envisions a "Great Swan" that holds within it creation and destruction: "Eureka / Or death?"
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In Iijima's fourth collection, shifts and spaces on the page animate the messy and glorious process of making meaning. As suggested by metamorphic in the title (meaning a change in a rock's physical form or substance, usually as a result of heat or pressure), geological metaphors are essential to these four long poems. The stunning title piece, composed entirely of questions, sifts and settles across its pages like sediment, both moving (in every sense) and unwaveringly direct. Tertium Organum has a noisier geologic structure, suggesting the violence of human intervention: Twisted corset the tectonic plates make/ when crassness butts up against steel. This collision of registers and the resulting dissonance is much of the point. Language, here, encroaches, is engorged, and is hit by passing vehicles. Often, it moves metonymically, leading us from idea to idea by way of sound: from loan to lone, suffer to sulfur, sees to siege, and sunder to tundra. Sometimes Iijima jumps between registers via overt protest, as in song birds gave way to acid rain. At her most self-reflexive, she describes her affection for/ provocative contrasts. The experience of following these contrasts is thrilling; as Iijima writes, In a manner of speaking we flew. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Iijima's eco-provocations have the lightness and gravitas of an improbably reconsecrated world glimpsed at its hectic, interrogatively driven conception. On the edge of loss, words have taken on direct agency." --Joan Retallack
"Plato, arguably the philosopher with the most influence on the development of Western culture, famously banished poets from the idea city in the name of the philosophos with a tacitly hegemonic regard for the danger posed to the State by the massive social power of poetic eros. The title of Brenda Iijima's new work, If Not Metamorphic, promises the emergence of an 'unhindered and spiraling' structure that, as it turns out, recoups and transforms this marginalized power of eros. What occurs is nothing less than the ramified beauty of the work's own variegated measures in a 'continuum of elaboration,' wherein 'Essentiality becomes / Phantasmal' and 'Erotic / Rebellion' flies in the face of a Platonically underwritten Occident that by philosophical default knows one habitually physiopsychical state, so to speak: 'The state / Would have us / Becoming / Bland.' Anything but bland, Iijima's fantastically life-affirming work asks: 'Eureka / Or death?' My response is to read aloud in wonder and appreciation." --Christopher Rizzo
"In Iijima's fourth collection, shifts and spaces on the page animate the messy and glorious process of making meaning. As suggested by 'metamorphic' in the title (meaning a change in a rock's physical form or substance, usually as a result of heat or pressure), geological metaphors are essential to these four long poems. The stunning title piece, composed entirely of questions, sifts and settles across its pages like sediment, both moving (in every sense) and unwaveringly direct. 'Tertium Organum' has a noisier geologic structure, suggesting the violence of human intervention: 'Twisted corset the tectonic plates make/ when crassness butts up against steel.' This collision of registers and the resulting dissonance is much of the point. Language, here, 'encroaches,' 'is engorged,' and 'is hit by passing vehicles.' Often, it moves metonymically, leading us from idea to idea by way of sound: from 'loan' to 'lone,' 'suffer' to 'sulfur,' 'sees' to 'siege,' and 'sunder' to 'tundra.' Sometimes Iijima jumps between registers via overt protest, as in 'song birds gave way to acid rain.' At her most self-reflexive, she describes her 'affection for/ provocative contrasts.' The experience of following these contrasts is thrilling; as Iijima writes, 'In a manner of speaking we flew.'" --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Plato, arguably the philosopher with the most influence on the development of Western culture, famously banished poets from the idea city in the name of the philosophos with a tacitly hegemonic regard for the danger posed to the State by the massive social power of poetic eros. The title of Brenda Iijima's new work, If Not Metamorphic, promises the emergence of an 'unhindered and spiraling' structure that, as it turns out, recoups and transforms this marginalized power of eros. What occurs is nothing less than the ramified beauty of the work's own variegated measures in a 'continuum of elaboration,' wherein 'Essentiality becomes / Phantasmal' and 'Erotic / Rebellion' flies in the face of a Platonically underwritten Occident that by philosophical default knows one habitually physiopsychical state, so to speak: 'The state / Would have us / Becoming / Bland.' Anything but bland, Iijima's fantastically life-affirming work asks: 'Eureka / Or death?' My response is to read aloud in wonder and appreciation." --Christopher Rizzo
"In Iijima's fourth collection, shifts and spaces on the page animate the messy and glorious process of making meaning. As suggested by 'metamorphic' in the title (meaning a change in a rock's physical form or substance, usually as a result of heat or pressure), geological metaphors are essential to these four long poems. The stunning title piece, composed entirely of questions, sifts and settles across its pages like sediment, both moving (in every sense) and unwaveringly direct. 'Tertium Organum' has a noisier geologic structure, suggesting the violence of human intervention: 'Twisted corset the tectonic plates make/ when crassness butts up against steel.' This collision of registers and the resulting dissonance is much of the point. Language, here, 'encroaches,' 'is engorged,' and 'is hit by passing vehicles.' Often, it moves metonymically, leading us from idea to idea by way of sound: from 'loan' to 'lone,' 'suffer' to 'sulfur,' 'sees' to 'siege,' and 'sunder' to 'tundra.' Sometimes Iijima jumps between registers via overt protest, as in 'song birds gave way to acid rain.' At her most self-reflexive, she describes her 'affection for/ provocative contrasts.' The experience of following these contrasts is thrilling; as Iijima writes, 'In a manner of speaking we flew.'" --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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