Dialogues with Rising Tides

Few poets document our world with as much beauty and grace as Agodon (Hourglass Museum). In seven sections, Agodon’s new collection examines such issues through the lens of a speaker who often feels broken herself, approaching her subject tangentially. Only a few poems focus directly on the climate change hinted at in the title, though it’s a theme returned to often. Most poems center on a wife/mother making her way through a fractured life as she experiences many unexpected deaths, with two children gone young, one from choking on a balloon: “A degree in suicide? we swallowed it, / reloaded, / a master’s degree in dying.” Agodon has mastered the art of making each poem new through unexpected turns. Throughout, her love of life, in all its beauty and contradictions, offers a counterpoint to the massive challenges that lie ahead. “Till Death Shatters the Fabulous Stars” offers what could be the book’s premise: “I’m devoted / to the broken / clamshells / climate / cockleshells.” Agodon shows us why we must create a better world: “every day is also a miracle.”