Hold Tight: The Truck Darling Poems

I feel emotionally spent, uplifted, transported, hollowed out from reading Jeni Olin's Hold Tight: The Truck Darling Poems in one afternoon.

These poems have so much fucking heart, so much beauty and pain and utter, complex, unequivocal brilliance. She is such an incredible, singularly talented poet.

As usual, when someone's work totally blows me away I find myself at a loss for words. Her poems are so packed with gorgeous phrasing, smart and surprising references, and from this beauty emerges a strong, undeniable, poetic persona that any sane person has no choice but to stand in awe of, if not love.

I was aesthetically and emotionally stricken by every poem in the collection, but some that particularly stood out for me (in no particular order): "Sigil", "Tashi Delek", "Default", "Prematurely Gay", "Anyhoo", "Birthday Poem", "Artist's Statement:" and, "Aftermath" which I will quote in its entirety:

(for Todd Colby)

Something ethical is moving me
away from your beauty. For serious.
You rage like swollen math & allergies
in my brain. In my dreams I am hatching
the hot eggs of black oceanographers.
The massive animal flu of love
has run me down. I am running
the temperature of a star in a ditch.
I inherit other people's dreams
when I'm crushed out on them.
Are you so strong or is it the Black Russian in me?
Can I french you where it hurts one more time
this time with apathy?
Sushi'd out & despairingly acoustic, you
cannot bring sexy back without a receipt.
Hot little animal, hold tight.