Poet brings unique style to OC

Boruch writes nature poetry with a human edge

It is only the second week in September and already Oberlin is being visited by its second prominent writer. Last week saw the visit of renowned novelist Maxine Hong Kingston, and the Creative Writing Department is sponsoring a reading by poet Marianne Boruch next week.

Boruch, a professor on the graduate level at Purdue University, will be on campus Tuesday, September 14. Her newest book, A Stick that Breaks and Breaks, is published by Field magazine, the journal of contemporary poetry printed by Oberlin College Press. Field also published her earlier collection, Moss Burning. The book proves Boruch to be a lyrical and memorable observer.

Most often her poems address nature, yet a poem titled "Snow Falling" reads as more than another poem written by a melancholy poet on a dark November day. There are pleasant surprises in her nature work, as there should be in all good poems, where the subject being addressed moves beyond the mere visual world of the poem. In "Snow Falling," Boruch writes: "There's a thought like this which took / all night to settle: snow / that comes and comes, whether you / dream or not."

Also, Boruch mingles reflections on the natural world with insights into human relations. In "Car Covered with Snow," readers encounter not merely the intersection of nature and technology, but also a glimpse of a human moment between the speaker and her son. "He says: we're / in a closed fist, Mama. / Or, it's like the car's eye is closed." It is these human touches which make Boruch's poems truly effective, for mere catalogues of observation and nature, while impressive, are likely to turn off many readers looking for more.

Boruch acknowledges the distinction between mere physical description and a more penetrating look at the world around us, in "Year in Hawaii," merely one of her many poems which touch on the geography of that state. She writes: "So much / of the beauty is the same. You've seen / the postcards. People buy them thinking / everything worthwhile comes / through a camera lens." This acknowledgment, and her subsequent examination of a terrain most know via postcards and such superficial media, is one of her strongest moments. In fact, for that simple, lyrical line alone - "So much of the beauty is the same" - this book is worth owning.

The college audience may be drawn in particular to the poem "Smoking," which resonates rather humorously on this campus. "I don't regret it," she writes, "not smoking, / though times in my twenties, I couldn't sit through a movie whole." This line evokes more than just an uncomfortable laugh at the familiarity of the premise, but also provides a glimpse of how life now might look a few years down the road. Boruch touches on her young adulthood more than once, though not in a wizened old manner likely to appeal only to readers of her own generation, but with humor and empathy not likely to alienate any twenty-something reader.

It is refreshing that Boruch's territory is one in which most readers can feel comfortable - there is nothing in these poems which is off-puttingly academic or ponderous. At the same time, however, there is a challenge and a depth behind her work which most readers will appreciate.

Marriane Boruch will present an informal question and answer session with students on Tuesday, September 14 at 4:30 p.m. in Wilder TBA. She will read at 7:30 p.m. in King 106.

Poetic poise: Marianne Boruch will visit the Creative Writing Program this week. She teaches at Purdue University. (photo by Joan Hackett)