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VALPARAISO POETRY REVIEW
Contemporary Poetry and Poetics



 
 

~JOHN FINDURA~





SARAH MANGUSO: SISTE VIATOR



These poems are permanent, not unlike the tattoos
that pop up every so often. There is only confidence
in what she is saying — no hesitation or second-guessing,
and that takes more than tapping on a keyboard.


Second books from poets often fall into the “project” category. The material for the first book has usually been compiled over years and is selected from hundreds of pieces. These poems have been revised, rewritten, thrown out, brought back, emailed to friends, twisted and pressed until they are deemed worthy. This process leaves a lot of unused poems behind. But who wants to include a poem in their second book that they didn’t feel was good enough to be in their first? That is where the idea for the “project” comes in: write poems that surround a central idea. This allows for some wiggle room. If a poem doesn’t stand by itself, but it fits in with the project, it can be excused. A bad song on a concept album rarely distracts from the whole if it moves the story along. However, Sarah Manguso’s second book, Siste Viator, is not the average “project” book.
    As pointed out in the book’s opening, “Siste Viator” translates from the Latin as “Stop, Traveler” or “Traveler, Halt” and was a common inscription on Roman roadside tombs. Praising a title is not something I often do, but in this case Manguso has hit the nail on the head. The poems found within force casual readers to stop and stare — to understand the situation and almost dare them to damnation for passing by. The poems, with one exception, are being transmitted from the grave to the passersby in near the same manner as an intricately carved headstone. This is the basis of the project, but the book has moved beyond the need to categorize it. There is a deep feeling of continuity that runs through it but the idea never overtakes the poems themselves.
    Manguso has driven a stake into the ground and marked off her territory. It is somewhat frightening to realize that your words may outlast you and very easy to stack them so that they fall in the direction they are pushed. What separates Siste Viator from her first book, The Captain Lands in Paradise, is that these poems will not tip in the direction they are pushed — they will fall in the direction that Manguso has set for them. These poems are permanent, not unlike the tattoos that pop up every so often. There is only confidence in what she is saying — no hesitation or second-guessing, and that takes more than tapping on a keyboard.
    Manguso offers up sharp and solid statements throughout the entire work. “Don’t let me get what I want. // I love you as dead people love — in every way imaginable.” The odd transitions offer up multiple readings that keep each poem fresh through repeated readings and give up new twists every time through. “A good horse runs even at the shadow of the whip. / But we are not good horses.” No, we stay and let the leather slap our skin over and over. As Manguso says, “I am not asking to suffer less. / I hope to be nearly crucified.” Yet somehow there is wit and humor in its midst: “I’m tired of looking at this blonde’s well formed ass / But she sure can weed a garden.”
    “And yet I cannot leave my room. Everything is in it already. / What is it like? It isn’t like anything. It already is everything.” That’s the best description that I could give to Siste Viator. It very well might be everything, and no, we cannot leave. It is confession and extreme unction all in one, where it is no longer clear who is the confessor, who is the sick. After reading, it no longer matters.


Siste Viator, Sarah Manguso. Four Way Books, 2006. ISBN: 1884800696 $14.95


 
© by John Findura
 


 
 

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