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foggy_rosamund's review against another edition
5.0
Inventive, funny and moving, reading Counting the Waves is a treat. The central conceit is The Traveller’s Vade Mecum: a book of stock phrases that could be used in telegrams. Beasley uses these phrases to inspire poems on many different subjects, from parable to grief, food to philosophy. Beasley’s tightly controlled language to expresses imaginative ideas, such as the place of goats on the island of Kaua’i, the formation of precious stones, or how intoxication brings emotional clarity. I particularly enjoyed Beasley’s focus on specificity of emotion and place, such as in the poem The Traveller’s Vade Mecum, Line #5450: “In A State of Intoxication”, when she says: “When I say I wish to correspond with you, / what I mean is I want to bite your tongue / across these many miles.”
Her poetry is often very funny, and always inventive. The way she plays with language is superlative: she is a uniquely talented poet. Her poetry also has a wonderful warmth. One poem that I keep returning too and consistently makes me smile is The Traveller’s Vade Mecum, Line #4088: “In the Latest Fashion” which begins, “Before the woman crosses the street with her ferret, she tucks it high under her arm like an unruly baguette.” The poem goes on to describe the tenderness between the woman and her strange pet with its “little thief face”, and it becomes a symbol for our own aloneness from other people. The poem ends by saying, “You say my name but I would rather be her, this woman who has found her interrobang and refuses to set it down.” Beasley’s poetry is full of a wonderful humanity, as well as a huge respect for non-human animals. I found her work refreshing and compelling, and highly recommend it.
Her poetry is often very funny, and always inventive. The way she plays with language is superlative: she is a uniquely talented poet. Her poetry also has a wonderful warmth. One poem that I keep returning too and consistently makes me smile is The Traveller’s Vade Mecum, Line #4088: “In the Latest Fashion” which begins, “Before the woman crosses the street with her ferret, she tucks it high under her arm like an unruly baguette.” The poem goes on to describe the tenderness between the woman and her strange pet with its “little thief face”, and it becomes a symbol for our own aloneness from other people. The poem ends by saying, “You say my name but I would rather be her, this woman who has found her interrobang and refuses to set it down.” Beasley’s poetry is full of a wonderful humanity, as well as a huge respect for non-human animals. I found her work refreshing and compelling, and highly recommend it.
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