Today the pachyderms travel to 19th-century Amherst, Massachusetts, in search of a quiet place to enjoy Elisabeth Horan‘s Odd list Odd house Odd me (now available from TwistiT Press). Taking Emily Dickinson for her muse, Horan spins poems that journey inward and across centuries to explore sensuality, nature, love, loss, yearning, and one’s mysterious self.
Invoking the Muse
You do not write enough these
stoic days of leaves and language—
Not that I judge, yet behold a
woman’s seethe
Seems to permeate my list my house
my pores
– from “Odd list Odd house Odd me”
As Johnny Longfellow writes in his back-cover review, Horan’s collection “is a splendid example of how to write a homage to a great writer, in this case, Emily Dickinson.” Rather than imitating Dickinson’s poetry, Horan channels her muse, drawing on aspects of Dickinson’s techniques, themes, and rhymes, blending them with her own words, style, and voice. Indeed, the collection’s title poem reads like an invocation, summoning vivid memories and “a woman’s seethe” across time to invigorate the author.
“I first read Emily in college out in Oregon,” says Horan. “I fell in love with her writing then… and so then when I was doing my MFA at Lindenwood in 2016-18, I studied her and Plath, feverishly.” While she has produced a collection of “Poems for Emily,” the fever or seethe that gives these poems life belongs solely to Horan.
Environmental Inputs
As with Dickinson’s works, references to nature permeate this collection. Chipmunks gossip while scurrying about the lines, and hoard luxuries in their trunk holes. Spiders lurk in corners, or in titles such as “Because Spiders Often Eat Their Mates After Copulation.” Indeed, Horan sees similarities between her own New England home and Dickinson’s 1800s Amherst.
“I am surrounded by nature – trees, animals, beauty, farms, little churches, little schools. It’s still quiet and quaint,” says Horan. “I can curl up in my bed, with a journal, and write about a moth and a spider and a frozen pond – or about the man I long for, who didn’t reply to my letter.”
Sensual Self
From the beginning, Odd list Odd house Odd me packs a lot of emotion: desire, loss, longing, nostalgia, anger, and love. And so many of those emotions come wrapped in sensuality and introspection. Poems such as “Were I With Thee—And Your Scepter” and “Not Sovereign” focus on touch and physical contact. Yet most of the lovers in Horan’s odd house remain apart, distant or in the past. And the swirling emotions and sensuality center on the poet herself.
In that regard, Horan finds sympathy with Dickinson.
“I felt like I could understand the want [Emily] might have felt,” says Horan. “The ache and need for companionship – but in reality stuck alone in a room writing about it rather than being in the arms of someone she loved.” Throughout her collection Horan taps into the passionate recluse inside each of us, the middle-night seeker that struggles to find a connection with the wider world.
Touch is a brutal God—all
Purple defiance
I tell him, I can live this life without
Having known u—versed in your glossed
Petals
– from “Not Sovereign”
Odd list Odd house Odd me
More than anything, Horan’s collection exhibits self-awareness and bravery. The poems feel written by someone conscious of herself, who has examined her soul and transcribed her findings in lyric. Whether addressing desire (“Something for to worship”), mourning (“At the grave of your death, I smile”), or artistic creation (“Barren—not of Words”), Horan writes her heart, unfettered by fear.
What a woman wouldn’t do
to be torn into something new –
– from “Something for to worship”
Unlike her muse, Horan and her poems now reach out into the world. No longer just yearning quietly, they reach into our spirits and make a connection.
Editor’s Note: Many thanks to TwistiT Press for giving us an advanced look at Odd list Odd house Odd me.
Elisabeth Horan is an imperfect creature from Vermont advocating for animals, children and those suffering alone and in pain – especially those ostracized by disability and mental illness. Elisabeth is Lead Editor at Animal Heart Press and glides along as Co-Editor of IceFloe Press, Toronto.
She recently earned her MFA from Lindenwood University and received a 2018 Best of the Net Nomination from Midnight Lane Boutique and a 2018 Pushcart Nomination from Cease Cows. She has books coming out in 2019 with Fly on the Wall Poetry Press, Rhythm & Bones Press, Flypaper Magazine, and Hedgehog Poetry Press.
Follow her on Twitter @ehoranpoet or connect on her website ehoranpoet.com.
(For a preview of Odd list Odd house Odd me, check out “Barren—not of Words” and “Sonnetype at dusk at graveside of young woman.” – Elephants Never)