An EveryDay Thing by Nancy Richardson
$19.99
“Without poetry there would be no history,” wrote Paz, and Nancy Richardson superb book is proof enough. Anchored in the tragic events of Kent State, but radiating out to examine other forms of violence and relationships, Nancy Richardson’s poems speak eloquently and superbly to our own times. To do this she counterpoints the “everyday” whether that be an apt observation or a family event and its unique quality. So for instance, in “Queen Anne’s Lace,” set suddenly in the midst all this, she understands its “Delicacy / in the midst of loss,” but does not stop there, rather moves on to what good poetry should do—heal—as she ends it by noting “these petals of silk, this snowflake of stars,” an image that lets us transcend but not avoid the real world she describes. This is an important book, deftly written, a must read.
–Richard Jackson, UTNAA Distinguished Professor of English, Vermont College
These terse, understated poems pack a great emotional punch. Unerringly, Nancy Richardson hits the mortal vulnerabilities and the socio-political ones. This book is a history of the grievous wastefulness of a post-WWII United States that in many ways has gone to hell; yet there is no accusation here. Rather, there is the poetry of what has been shattered—be it in a motorcycle accident or voter fraud or the Kent State killings—and cannot be put back together.
–Baron Wormser, Author of Tom o’ Vietnam and former Poet Laureate of Maine
Nancy Richardson‘s voice is clearly heard through this beautiful and insightful collection. She makes the ordinary extraordinary with her choice of rich images.
–Madeleine Kunin: Author of My Coming of Age: My journey through the Eighties
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nancy-richardson2/an-everyday-thing-poetryK/
Readaholic Zone blog –
An EveryDay Thing
by Nancy Richardson
Paperback, 120 pages
Published July 13th, 2018 by Finishing Line Press
Nancy Richardson’s poems concern coming of age in the rust-belt of Ohio during a period of decay of the physical and political structures that made the region once solid and predictable. Her poems chart the shifting of the foundations upon which a life is built and the unpredictability of events that have profound personal and political consequences, including the shootings at Kent State University.
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I would like to start off this review by saying how mind-blowing this compilation of poetry is, never have I read something so creative and atypical. AN EVERYDAY THING is so intense it is like reading someone’s soul. Undoubtedly, as you consume this writing it will rip you apart with turmoil and tragedy. For this very reason as a reader, you cannot miss such fabulousness.
I find it fascinating that Richards uses the Kent State shooting as the main focal point in this book of poems since on May 4th, 1970 was the day the people of America became afraid of their own government and since that day nothing has changed, only intensified. Furthermore, weaving in poems of atrocities taking place within today’s society, such as spousal abuse, voter fraud, loss of loved ones, rich people getting richer by polluting the earth and many more subjects. To me, these poems represent the rapid decline that society is making as a whole. The most important point is will society pull out of its downward spiral before it is too late.
The formation and layout of each poem are as unique as the poems themselves. Richardson is quite the rare poet in the way she can paint a portrait of a senseless massacre with only 11 black lines. Additionally, the construct of the poem “MY MOTHER’S HUNGER” is exclusive in the layout combining two poems into one. Line one starts the first poem than line two is the start of the second. Therefore, as a reader, you will read every other line finding two poems in one. This is one of my favorite poems due to the possibility of interpretations. Do they have equivalent interpretations? Or could they be contradictory? Maybe there is no relation at all. Everyone’s interpretation is different, nonetheless. I am going to wrap up my review with a poem that I can strongly relate to. Why is this? I have Rheumatoid Arthritis at 44 years old and this poem resonates deeply with me.
CLEAN
Her fingers bent in strange ways,
twigs blown in a strong wind.
At night I would stand beside her
at the kitchen sink, dry each dish.
She worried each small bit of grease,
each baked-on remnant of food,
scrubbing as the hot water poured
over her twisted fingers. Balm of heat
on skin, sacrament of cleanliness
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Nancy Richardson’s poems have appeared in journals anthologies. She has written two chapbooks. The first, Unwelcomed Guest (2013) by Main Street Rag Publishing Company and the second, the Fire’s Edge (2017) by Finishing Line Press concerned her formative youth in the rust-belt of Ohio and the dislocation, including the Kent State shootings that affected her young adulthood. In An Everyday Thing, she has included those poems and extended the narrative to memories of persons and events and the make a life.
She has spent a good deal of her professional life working in government and education at the local, state, and federal levels and as a policy liaison in the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Education and for the Governor of Massachusetts. She received an MFA in Writing from Vermont College in 2005 and has served on the Board of the Frost Place in Franconia, NH. Visit her Website.
http://www.richardsonvt.com/
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From the blog True Book Addict. –
An EveryDay Thing by Nancy Richardson – #Poetry #Review
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I’ve read a lot of blurbs and reviews on this collection. Most of them say raw, angry, etc. True. Many of the poems are angry. How can one not be angry about the Kent State shootings in 1970? There are several poems surrounding that event, and then some that seem to regard climate change, and even elections. The RESIST part of myself felt very pleased by the examination of these events in such subtle yet telling ways.
However, I must bring up the poignant and beautiful aspect of many of the poems here. I was particularly touched by the poems about her sister (or a sister?). I am very close with my sister so these really hit home. Portland, June 1991, The Fire’s Edge (shared below), and Later…
The Fire’s Edge
The Portland taxi wheels crunch on gravel
and I touch her as our reflections bleed down
the wet window glass. I will not see her again.
Sisters, we were born on the fire’s edge
in a town of sulfur dust, metal water. At night
we sweated the uphill climb to see
the open hearth’s unholy glow on the horizon.
On the old mattress with the sinking center
we talked of our futures and who would love us.
The screen door slaps. I turn, see the window,
her face melting in watercolor light.
Finally, there’s the poem River…so exquisite in its simplicity, it’s one of the most beautiful poems I’ve ever read. It all comes back to love. No matter who, or what, you love…love is love.
River
A man I knew once told me
that we are small leaves
flowing downstream in a river
of space and time, our destination
love–perhaps unreachable.
But now I see that the river is love
and we are words
and the words are stones
pushed by the flow, moving,
wedged, or sinking in the silt.
I recommend this collection to anyone who loves poetry; Poetry that really makes you think.
KIRKUS REVIEW –
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nancy-richardson2/an-everyday-thing-poetryK/
Rochak Agarwal –
An Everyday Thing by Nancy Richardson
A sparkling collection embodying truth through the influence of moral profundity rested in the themes of poems.
Nancy’s writings bring her signature sharp, perceptive, splendiferous language to this poetic collection which relates a great part with shootings of Kent State and other associated themes.
In Kent State Trial, 1975 the art of poetry brings out the social point of view and the poetic style obliquely remarks the repulsive human behavior and culture during the 1970s. “The photos speak for themselves,” states that the photos are so shattering that discussion on its details might not seem appropriate and can deteriorate the decorum of the court. However, including such tragedies makes poetry a higher art and stimulates the purgation of emotions.
Kent State Trial, 1975
“The photos speak for themselves,” said the Judge
to the students’ lawyers. The jury puzzled over them,
but the photos lost their nerve. In this one the Governor
would shout, “worse than the brownshirts
and the communists, night riders and the vigilantes.”
Or another, blue sky, clouds, a clot of guardsmen
huddled in the field, perhaps a picnic on a spring day
in May. If the photo had bothered to listen it might
have overheard their plans to turn in unison and fire.
Fear brings out the ghastly horror and can give serious goosebumps to the reader if read in silence and with a complete feel. Each line of the poem is unequivocally stellar and entrances the reader with the poet’s bewildering insights.
Fear
The air is thick with strobe lights and sweat.
On stage Jefferson Airplane sings for the four dead
and the nine wounded. Gracie Slick in a voice
like a dirt road, we are outlaws in the eyes of America
tear down the walls. Behind her on the screen
Jeffrey Miller’s body leaking down the concrete
in blue staccato lights. Somewhere a door lets in a gust
of fear. Tear down the walls won’t you try?
In An Everyday Thing each line overwhelms the reader by a succinct and simmers up the ardor as the book goes on. The inclusion of certain tragedies in the poetic collection is an artistic imitation of historical facts. The language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament through pity fear, horror affects the interpretations done by the brain while the verse seems so touching to the heart that it cannot be expressed in words by one.
An Everyday Thing
53Notes of the students’ lawyers, Kent State Trial
one round was fired on the hill.
what did they say?
you can see smoke in the pictures.
good hair, the jury likes him.
find the impeaching part.
cause she’s so pretty.
Directiveness, restraints, austerity and high seriousness in Nancy Richardson’s style of writing is quite noteworthy and brings her ideal of poetic art to a high level enunciating the classical philosophies of artistic beauty. Youngstown Ohio 1952, Myopia, Returning to Kent State and Randomness reflects intense light upon the shooting and trials of Kent State and the remarkable historical events of Ohio. However, most of the poems grab the theme from Kent State and Ohio each depicting a different perspective and context.
I highly recommend An Everyday Thing a wonderful collection by Nancy Richardson to all the readers. Read on!
— Rochak Agarwal