In a note to readers at the start of Blue Opening, poet Chet'la Sebree explains that "this collection, which emerged like life from the ether, is for those who, too, scramble and search, who dive into the unknown." Sebree's powerful collection plumbs those depths, each poem an exploration of how things emerge from the unknown, of origins and roots and beginnings. The book's three sections all open with a numbered poem titled "Root Logic," each one an etymological examination of a word: womb, breast, and brain. Though each is a distinct piece, the numbering makes them feel like linked stanzas, uniting the book across their shared form and structure.
Sebree makes creative use of numbering throughout, as seen in "Five Facts About Lupus," where each page features numbered, brief stanzas. In addition to this fragmentation, the poem is further destabilized by its sequence: the predictable (1, followed by 2, followed by 2a) supplanted by the unexpected, where 2a is followed by 1a, and 2d & e chase after 3. This level of care, of attention to the way design and content overlap to create meaning, is what sets Sebree's collection apart, asking readers to give it the same level of careful attention.
The poems revel in a raw physicality, as in the prose poem "Home Remedy" which dances between alliterative phrasing and a gritty reality: "A keratin cord curls itself between pubic hairs still damp from the shower--a single comma curdling out." With her kinetic idea-play and word work, Sebree invites readers to join her, awestruck at all the unknowable wonders and griefs of being human. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian