Critically acclaimed poet Kathleen Ossip's July offers a revelatory and lived-in reflection on tumultuous times. Comprised of three sections (Occasions, July and The Goddess), the collection begins with standouts like "Bluebird," "On Boredom" and "Found Under a Chair Cushion" that capture the more fleeting but still memorable portraits of daily life, family relations and the expansive nature of quotidian details. The volume ends with a series of more deeply meditative and transcendent near-prayers. The standout is nonetheless the book's middle, titular section, which delves into one woman's vacation with her college-aged daughter during the deeply surreal month of July prior to Trump's election.
Part unconventional travelogue, part cultural critique, part lyrical exploration of motherhood, this second section is an always surprising series of revelations, ruptures and recognitions. Ossip's writing leaps forward in associative bounds that turns the chaos of existing in the world during such times into a work of kinetic and emotionally uncanny art. The juxtaposition of "Disney World: Faces of two-year-olds/ ...[that] look like the faces of/ the damned"; the little pleasures of "frozen lemonade"; and the knowledge of "shooting today in Munich and bombing in Kabul" encapsulates the emotional and intellectual range of Ossip's piece. With her athletic lyricism, turbulent layouts and wide-ranging subject matter, Ossip (The Do-Over) challenges readers to hold multiple conflicting and unimaginable truths in their heads at once. Doing so, she suggests, may not solve the moral or political dilemmas of contemporary life, but it is a start. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor