Reviewed by Matt Usher
The Ones
by Kathleen Latham
Kelsay Books
October 2024, Paperback, 76 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1639806591
The Ones, by Kathleen Latham, is an aching assortment that explores the total means of parting, longing, and belonging. The circulate is in that order, largely, at the very least: the primary part is replete with accounts of unhealthy breakups, messy ideas of rejoining, and the rawness that comes with closeness thwarted. From there we transfer to extra affectionate poems of remorse over what was with an urge to attempt to reclaim it. It’s solely towards the tip that we discover the catharsis of affection that abides.
Early on this metanarrative, we encounter a voice that will likely be constant all through the gathering. One which “[laughs], too loudly,/drunk with the efficiency of issues unsaid”. This, from ‘On Operating into an Ex-lover’; issues unsaid could be one other apt title for this assortment. ‘That is How I Image Your Bed room’ closes the preliminary, unnumbered, part named Perspective. Right here the voice ‘[envisions] all of it – your room, your mattress,/you again – however I by no means place myself/contained in the body. As an alternative, you might be alone/and I’m alone and it’s silent.’. Ache flows freely in these phrases, the uncooked moments the place love is first misplaced.
The primary numbered part is titled The Ones Who Come First. In ‘Love vs. Gravity’, we see the notes (“I assumed you had been a distinct man”) of previous tense creeping in, the distancing from the crux of parting. “How was I to know you carried/the key of your give up in your pocket/like rocks meant to hurry your descent?” – a nod to fellow poet Virginia Woolf’s well-known denouement. Subsequent, in ‘Closure’, we hear the desperation of attempting to overlook: “If solely it will present me/that you simply’ve grown fats and bald/or previous and ugly. Something,/to assist me recover from you.”
Persevering with the sample of nomenclature, we’ve got These Who Come Subsequent. The residence is now empty; we really feel the dearth. “Now we have all misplaced one thing./Ubiquity doesn’t make it trite,/it makes us human.” ‘In Protection of Poems About Heartbreak’ serves, unsurprisingly, as a raison d’etre for the gathering itself. We additional hear the plaintive voice: “my exes roam the halls of my thoughts/with abandon. They arrange store in darkish corners,/rattle locks and blare music, lounge about”. The dearth now fills with reminiscences one feels should be excised with poetry, a psychological spring cleansing to clear apart the cobwebs of the previous. We vary amongst many emotions, none maybe extra poignant than ‘To the Ones Who Use Their Fists’: “You don’t/deserve/a poem.” The emphasis given its personal line: deserve.
Closing the gathering is an element three, The Ones Who Come Final. Lastly, the redemptive pressure comes by means of and hope falteringly tries to face. Easy issues can communicate of nice love, as in ‘Cranberry Juice’: “I ought to have recognized you liked me after I bought a UTI in a Motel 6 in San Diego and also you went out at three within the morning to get me cranberry juice”. In reflecting, the voice realizes “It took me far too lengthy to grasp that typically/love is a quiet knock on a closed door.” It is a mature love, one which displays fairly than being caught up within the torrent of younger love, blown about like Dante’s second circle lovers. Right here, too, we’ve got a testomony to a wedding in ‘Once more and Once more and Once more’: “What a present it’s to be discovered./What a blessing, on this world of billions,/to hyperlink arms and know that you’re house.” Mature love is like coming house, discovering that you’re the place you’ve gotten all the time wanted to be.
Choose up this assortment if you happen to’re in search of catharsis in trying again on a historical past of affection gained and love misplaced. It’s positively keyed towards a extra mature viewers, however then may need good recommendation for the younger and inexperienced: it will likely be painful, however in enduring we discover one thing a lot higher. Latham is a passionate poet, one who elides conventional construction in favor of uncooked emotion and keenness.
In regards to the reviewer: Matt Usher is an agender, extremely neurodivergent author and musician who likes poetry, tabletop roleplaying, buying and selling card video games (mtg and ygo), {and professional} wrestling. They’re based mostly out of Brooklyn with their two companions in a cheerful polecule. Most of their works are quick tales nevertheless it occurred that their first credit score was in literary criticism. If you wish to attain out and/or contact them relating to their critiques or tales (please do), you’ll find them at https://bsky.app/profile/mattusher.bsky.social
