The Forest

I heard an interview on Ex Libris with Susan Stewart and soon after ordered The Forest. I like the way she uses language. There's a back and forth motion in her lines with words and ideas. Slaughter is at the beginning and about the slaughtering of a cow and how the slaughtering changes the cow to the point that it is no longer recognized as a cow, but as products to be used by people. The Forest is also about the same type of thing. We have what appears to be forests, but the forests that we know now have been controlled by people for so long that we don't know what real forests are. We only know facsimiles of forests. In places, she gets very academic and the voice that draws me in to listen is covered over. Overall, her mysterious and quiet voice speaks these poems that I will read again, entranced.