“‘Little Hill’ ... embraces radical, multitudinous forms of love, rendered visible in a number of compelling guises: milkweed, poplar, ocean, inquiry, ... ‘the whale’s heft, buoyant in dark sea.’” Photo by Christopher Michel, via Flickr.
Little Hill by Alli Warren is a poetry collection that embraces radical, multitudinous forms of love, rendered visible in a number of compelling guises: milkweed, poplar, ocean, inquiry, the portion of the neck where one’s nose fits, anticapitalist philosophy, music, “the whale’s heft, buoyant in dark sea,”[1] community, resonance. The poems refute and reimagine the present with a measured and resolute sonic temperance:
During this time of slowed publication, we at J2 want to highlight some books from our (digital) reviews shelf. Today’s poetry title on our radar: Little Hill by Alli Warren (City Lights, 2020). If you’d like to review this title, please let us know: jacket2.org/contact
During this time of slowed publication, we at J2 want to highlight some books from our (digital) reviews shelf. Today’s poetry title on our radar: Little Hill by Alli Warren (City Lights, 2020). If you’d like to review this title, please let us know: jacket2.org/contact
In I Love It Though Warren thinks about how we manage to live without finding it necessary to lie to ourselves or each other about how we’re living, even after hedges enclosed the commons, even as our bosses email us all the time. She thinks about how we manage to love and care for our friends, have desires, and sometimes see to their satisfaction, how we find pleasure in resisting the scenes and actions where we’ve been told all pleasure waits; in working for and spending money.
I.
I read this quote from a twelfth-century verse chronicle by Wace, Roman de Rou, wherein he paraphrases the displeasure expressed by some local serfs at the neighboring nobility’s incorporation of the noncultivated lands that for these serfs had previously been a collective resource, writing, “We can go to the woods and take what we want, take fish from the fish pond, and game from the forests; we’ll have our will in the woods, the waters, and the meadows.”
On our radar: 'Little Hill' by Alli Warren
During this time of slowed publication, we at J2 want to highlight some books from our (digital) reviews shelf. Today’s poetry title on our radar: Little Hill by Alli Warren (City Lights, 2020). If you’d like to review this title, please let us know: jacket2.org/contact
During this time of slowed publication, we at J2 want to highlight some books from our (digital) reviews shelf. Today’s poetry title on our radar: Little Hill by Alli Warren (City Lights, 2020). If you’d like to review this title, please let us know: jacket2.org/contact