Susan Tichy

Poetry as ecstatic geology

On Susan Tichy's 'North|Rock|Edge'

Coastline at Score Head, Shetland Islands. Photo by John Allan via Wikimedia Commons.

The place of arrival is an opening, “this rough coast a gate.” Nothing here is certain (“not map, no compass rose”) or still, the edges undefined. The invitation is just this: to arrive and to dwell in this uncertainty and motion; to look and not to “miss a single / wave’s decay” (3).

Susan Tichy’s latest collection opens with an invitation:

Arriving, Stand Still
if you can, haul-to within
the terms of anguish[1]

The place of arrival is an opening, “this rough coast a gate.” Nothing here is certain (“not map, no compass rose”) or still, the edges undefined. The invitation is just this: to arrive and to dwell in this uncertainty and motion; to look and not to “miss a single / wave’s decay” (3).

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