Barren Years by Amanda Russell

Amanda Russell’s first collection of poems marks a promising debut, demonstrating both talent and potential. The chapbook contains twenty-five poems, all of them written in the contemporary stylistic idiom of free verse, but this is not a neophyte’s free verse cut willy-nilly into scraps and set out on the page in hopes that they will somehow work as lines. For the most part, her lines are broken with care and contribute their own subtle music to a scene or argument.   Inasmuch as the collection’s title, Barren Years, is drawn from the poet/speaker’s miscarriage (losing twins in the 16^th week of her pregnancy), it is remarkable that the basic tone of these poems is as upbeat as it is. Partly this is owing to the fact that there is a good deal of variety here. The volume’s second poem, “Middleness Is…,” for example, is a simple list of items that define the title; each line begins with the word “the.” Yet Russell is able to treat many of the listed items as completions of a puzzle, or better yet as the vehicle and tenor of a metaphor, as in “the tunnel in the whirlpool,/the button in the hole.” Such comparisons are effective if self effacing instances of wit on the poet’s part. There is also a quiet wit in the title poem, “Barren Years,” and at times it provides moments of consolation to the speaker’s sorrow.   Besides the two poems mentioned, my short list of favorites includes “Sonogram (16 Weeks),” “Birdwatching,” “My Childhood Home,” “Moon,” “Garden Talk,” “Pascha Lilies,” “Stones and Pines,” “The Most Splendid Music,” and “5:31 P.M.”  Along with the other poems, these form a cohesive, lively testament to a period in the poet’s life—a time of personal tragedy and the gradual recovery of her capacity for delight. The promise of these poems has me already looking forward to Russell’s next book.

–Roy Scheele, author of The Sledders