Susan Rich's sixth poetry collection, Blue Atlas, is a forthright reckoning with the aftermath of abortion that takes its inventive metaphors from African travel and scientific theories.
Decades after an abortion, the speaker still expresses anger and remorse. "Binocular Vision" addresses the child who never was: "Happy Non-/ Birthday, 31." Like a fractured mirror, the collection showcases fragments of traumatic memory: a breakup with a fiancé in Paris, a sister's accompaniment to the abortion appointment--perhaps even a feeling of coercion by her? "Outline for Freshman Composition" interrogates these motivations, asking, "Did you agree to an abortion to appease a sister?"
The whole collection orbits the abortion, with the 50 poems varying in tone from sorrow to acerbic wit, as in the wordplay in "Arborist / Abortionist" and the absurdity and circumlocutions of "Post-Abortion Questionnaire Powered by Survey Monkey," which takes inspiration from Oliver de la Paz's "Autism Questionnaire." Rich (Gallery of Postcards and Maps) channels Patricia Lockwood in the personification of an abstraction in "The Abortion Question."
Color and repetition make the verse vibrant and hypnotic. Lush descriptions of travel destinations lighten the mood, as in the alliteration of "Medina, Morning" ("Past pomegranate sellers, past hand-pulled wagons"). Food traditions connect to Jewish ancestry when "potato kugel and gefilte fish, strudel and krepla" form "bright lintels into the past." Science inspires some of the figurative language, such as an image of a star map, an extended metaphor involving string theory, and the infinity symbol "where we balance/ on bitter ovals of regret." History is a heavy burden here, but Rich's honest chronicling and tenderly posed what-if questions allay desolation. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader and blogger at Bookish Beck