Prose just cannot stir the soul like poetry. My dog-eared Rumi and coffee-stained Elizabeth Bishop never leave my nightstand. So what an utter delight to be introduced to the young poet Katherine Larson(by D., a charming, brown-eyed, soulful poet himself). Larson captures the wretched and sublime of life with the eye of a biologist and the heart of a poet. There is a delight on every page. Read this now. The most simplistic definition of radial symmetry is “the beauty of circles,” which is exactly what this collection presents: various facets of life, though a great deal of them have to do with trips to an ocean alongside the desert (Mexico?) for vacations or to study the wildlife (Larson is a biologist). She describes the beauty of such creatures with radial symmetry, those both alive and dead. Larson ever contrastts life and death, beauty and pain. In one poem she compares calls the fragmenting of clouds awkward, like little children learning to operate left handed scissors. The poem “Pomegranates” describes her studying cancer cells, the living cells of a dead person. She dissects anemones and fish and thinks of the touch of a lover. Everything is equal in beauty to Larson, which is the precise definition of radial symmetry. If life is a circle than everything, every wedge in that circle is equal in form to the rest of the pieces. She writes, “Either everything’s sublime or nothing is,” as her thesis. In the final poem she compares herself to a “fisherman who longed … for the arms of God.” Larson’s juxtaposition of images, her ear for the sounds of words, combined with a knowledge of biology make the book beautiful and fascinating, with no poem (as unique as they all are) more beautiful or compelling than the rest.
What do You think about Radial Symmetry (2011)?
Absolutely beautiful poetry, you can see why she won the Yale Younger Poets series.
—BobP
I'd give it a 3.5, if I could. Some really lovely poems here.
—rachel
