
Woman Drinking Absinthe Review by Kristin Kowalski Ferragut
Woman Drinking Absinthe by Katherine E. Young
Alan Squire Publishing, March 2021
$15.99, 71 pages
ISBN: 978-1-942892-24-3
Review by Kristin Kowalski Ferragut
In her poetry collection Woman Drinking Absinthe, Katherine E. Young invites us into intimate moments of indiscretion, crisis, and redemption while also opening up space through treatment of space rocks, various points on the globe and metaphors using Euclidean Geometry. Her poems are atmospherically rich, set in a variety of historical and cultural settings. The reader is drawn into the ambience of Paris in the 1890s as alluded to in the collection’s title and in pieces throughout; Japan in the early 1900s, as Young powerfully explores Mrs. Pinkerton of Madama Butterfly, and present day, as featured in poems such as “Soul Food” and “Planning Your Suburban Affair.” Tying together all these times and topics are themes of relationships, human folly, and love.
In Part vii of the “Place of Peace,” Young writes:
………….So many battles are accidental. Love,
………….my son, when it finally comes—unlooked-for,
………….savage, bursting riotous into bloom,
………….stunning us while we lie dreaming—love’s
………….the only thing worth fighting for. It’s absence
………….is the wound in the heart, slit in the skin
………….of the universe through which we fall and, falling,
………….are lost…
Young presents juxtapositions that enliven tensions within individual pieces — lines and circles, violence and tenderness, human and animal, — then blurs the lines of contrast, as in her six-part poem “The Bear.” With great economy of language she conjures powerful images while we follow the speaker’s relationship with the bear who tells her, regarding the ring set in his nose: “I screwed the ring in myself, / thought I’d live better with a chain, / with four walls to steady me.” This exemplifies Young’s rich use of folktale imagery, her easy blending of real with fanciful, and her potent use of irony. Also explicit in this image, as well as so many of Young’s poems, is the presence of pain in collaboration with love, or sense of home found within another.
Young writes with keen insight into complicated emotions with wonderful, often surprising sensory details. She consistently withholds judgment of her flawed characters. The way she masterfully unfolds scenes has the reader relating with some of the most misguided characters, almost wishing the characters could succeed in their ill-conceived adventures, certainly feeling sympathy for their choices. As the poem “Planning Your Suburban Affair” concludes, “take off your wedding ring. Pack a flashlight, fine, / but you can’t ever turn it on.”
Young drives home how messy and complicated is the human heart. Her poems resonate with truth, but that is not to say illuminate answers nor highlight solutions. She invariably concludes that suffering is part of this struggle and many of her poems sing wistfully. As she writes in “Today I’m Writing Love Songs:”
………….…you and I, we descend from monsoon—
………….our sort of love engorges the river,
………….corduroys the fields, drowns the seedlings
………….asleep in cradling earth. Heat, water, ooze,
………….fruit rotting in mud: no haven’s safe from us.
In concert with this poem of loving too greatly, live poems about abuse and prostitutes and a biblical nod to a woman seasoning her lover’s life with grains of salt. While the movement in this collection is fantastic, one is left with the holistic sense that the stories are different facets of one parallel, repeating, universal situation rather than different tales. But that may not matter because each piece provides its own lyricism and invitation to analyze for deeper meanings.
There is poetry that one reads through, savoring the rhythm and melody of words. There is poetry that one reads slowly, stopping frequently to contemplate phrases and concepts. Woman Drinking Absinthe is well-served by both styles of reading and more. While reading through the collection, one might realize importance in what seemed a less meaningful phrase and be called to re-read, taking a non-linear jaunt through this collection, as the collection itself does in time. For instance, in the first poem “Birdsong,” a dream is relayed, “you hear the voice of someone / who once seemed unimportant / whispering now ‘How fine you are!” The poem continues on to end almost casually, but that once seemingly unimportant man who visited the speaker’s dream is mightily significant. There he is, interjecting his nameless self into the life of the speaker and her husband who laughs at the dream. The realization of passing over something ostensibly casual that spotlights such a crucial moment in one’s internal life warrants a return viewing, as many poems in Woman Drinking Absinthe do.
While anguish, sadness, and fear live in Young’s poetry, so does hope. As the speaker concludes in “African Violets,”
………….…Like young children,
………….like new lovers, they’ve no better sense
………….than to seek my caress: they must believe
………….in old wives’ tales, promise of renewal.
Young’s poetry makes us want to believe; believe that her characters will be redeemed through love, despite themselves; believe that love is attainable and sustainable, as is forgiveness and belonging. Young presents us with gorgeous poetry that feels musical and magical and connects us to humanity with interest and compassion, despite our flaws.
Kristin Kowalski Ferragut teaches, plays guitar, hikes, supports her children in becoming who they are meant to be, and enjoys the vibrant writing community in the DMV. She is the author of the poetry collection Escape Velocity (Kelsay Books, 2021) and of the children’s book Becoming the Enchantress: A Magical Transgender Tale (Loving Healing Press, 2021). Her poetry has appeared in Beltway Quarterly, Nightingale and Sparrow, Bourgeon, Mojave He[Art] Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Fledgling Rag, and Little Patuxent Review among others. Find more on her website: https://www.kristinskiferragut.com/
Leave a Reply