Dissolve

It was a little difficult for me to get into. Too abstract for my taste. But other people in my class loved it. So it's just a matter of preference.

One of the many highly creative Navajo voices.

With imagery almost too sumptuous for the subject matter, these poems resonate with working-class suffering, the isolation of the reservation, and the tragic loss of habitat. Lacking a center or a direction, this book is probably most satisfying if taken in small doses, such as one poem a day. Reading each poem repeatedly is rewarding, because it has a preciously fresh effect upon first reading, and subtler evocations during later ones. (I myself read the book a little faster.)Some metaphors are quite evocative ("We are husbands to razed hillsides, wives to drowned bridges") and some themes prove comprehensible, such as the taking of open ground for a hotel. But much of the word-play is inscrutable, I feel that Bitsui stretches his talents a bit too much at times. I could have loved the phrase "dangling atop the periphery of an ax blade" but he overloading it by writing "dangling atop the periphery of an ax blade's slumber." After many pages of such jarring images, questionable metaphors, and recycled concepts (mouths, ladders, and elevators carry a heavy burden), I can't resist wondering sometimes if I'm being hoodwinked. One hopes eventually for more of a point, more of a resolution.A few poems in the middle of the book seem well-integrated and describe people or relationships, but the only poem with a real story is the opening two-pager, The Caravan. I look forward to reading more poems like that one from Bitsui.

Dissolve is my first experience reading Sherwin Bitsui, but it was well worth the time. Bitsui writes with clarity and description when focused on the urban world or the rural. It was this idea of the wilderness that drew me in from the book’s summary, and I was not disappointed.Bitsui shows himself to be a master at combining many elements - unexpected word pairs, diverse experiences, metaphor and reality, and setting. Sometimes the effect is soothing, and sometimes appropriately unsettling.The untitled nature of each entry made this book feel like a seamless journey from the start to the last page. This is writing to be savored for poetry lovers.

Sherwin Bitsui's book "Dissolve" drew me in, intrigued me, allowed me through his word usage to see the world differently. I feel bigger, stronger and energized from this poetry experience.