Olena Kalytiak Davis

Of the poets we last read, Olena Kalytiak Davis really appealed to me. In “A Small Number” and “Six Apologies, Lord,” I appreciated her deft manipulation of repetition. Often, her spacing and line breaks caught me off-guard. And, even though I don’t pretend to understand everything that she’s writing, I have the feeling that with studied attention, some sort of understanding would be within my reach. She doesn’t have sewing machines flying out of aliens’ ears or elephants tap dancing on toilet seats….and I appreciate that.

Olena Kalytiak Davis
Six Apologies, Lord
I Have Loved My Horrible Self, Lord.
I Rose, Lord, And I Rose, Lord, And I
Dropt. Your Requirements, Lord. 'Spite Your Requirements, Lord.
I Have Loved the Low Voltage Of The Moon, Lord,
Until There Was No Moon Intensity Left, Lord, No Moon
Intensity Left
For You, Lord. I Have Loved The Frivolous, The Fleeting, The
Frightful
Clouds, Lord. I Have Loved Clouds! Do Not Forgive Me, Do Not
Forgive Me Lordandlover, Harborandmaster, Guardianandbread,
Do Not.
Hold Me, Lord, O, Hold Me

Accountable, Lord. I Am
Accountable. Lord,

Lord It Over Me,
Lord It Over Me, Lord. Feed Me

Hope, Lord. Feed Me
Hope, Lord, Or Break My Teeth.

Break My Teeth, Sir.
In This My Mouth.

The poem “Six Apologies, Lord” immediately gripped me. I want to know what six things she could have done that could require apology. Why would she apologize for loving clouds? And why is every word capitalized? Although she is apologizing to “Lord,” I’m not sure if this Lord is actually God or a metaphorical, representational God – her husband, her father – herself? My thinking is led down the husband/male figure path due to the fact that the lines “I Rose, Lord, And I Rose, Lord, And I /Dropt. Your Requirements, Lord” is reminiscent of Emily Dickinson, of whom I am a fan. “She rose to his requirement, dropped / the playthings of her life / to take the honorable work / of woman and of wife. / I aught she missed in her new day / Of amplitude, or awe, / Or first prospective, or the gold / in using wore away, / it lay unmentioned, as the sea / Develops pearl and weed, / but only to himself is known/ the Fathoms they abide.” Also, the words that have been combined “lordandlover” hold some meaning, as does the abrupt switch to "Sir. " The poem itself, again, has a hypnotizing, mesmerizing effect on me. I just love it.

A Small Number
So far, have managed, Not
Much. So far, a few fractures, a few factions, a Few
Friends. So far, a husband, a husbandry, Nothing
Too complex, so far, followed the Simple
Instructions. Read them twice. So far, memorized three Moments,
Buried a couple deaths, those turning faces. So far, two or Three
Sonnets. So far, some berrigan and Some
Keats. So far, a scanty list. So far, a dark wood. So far, Anti-
Thesis and then, maybe, a little thesis. So far, a small Number
Of emily’s letters. So far, tim not dead. So far, Matt
Not dead. So far, jim. So far, Love
And love, not so far. Not so love. So far, no-Hope.
So far, all face. So far, scrapped and scraped, but Not
With grace. So far, not Very.

I also enjoyed “A Small Number.” When I read this poem, I had just finished reading Sandra Alcosser’s poem “My Number,” which also intrigued me. But, I prefer Kalytiak Davis’s style to that of Alcosser. Again, I think I spot an Emily Dickinson reference in the line about “A small number of emily’s letters.” Like in “Six Apologies. Lord,” she so defly manipulates words that her repetition is mesmerizing. Her up-front linguistic style, I think, is largely responsible for catching me off guard. I am lulled into a kind of false sense of simplicity due to the word choices and repetition. Content-wise, it seems that she may be trying to put a value on her life by making a list – and finding her list and her life lacking. By the end of the poem, where she is listing off people who are “not dead,” I am totally sucked in. Totally. Just the wording connotes that she expects tim, Matt, and jim to not be among the living for as long as she – her expectation seems to be that they will soon join another list, becoming another small number.