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 | The Beauty of It poems by Anne Britting Oleson |
The Beauty Of It by Anne Britting Oleson takes its title from a poem celebrating “surprising beauty in unlikely places”, unexpected brief encounters with strangers passing through our lives; the poet tells us “I know: they are out there..like the sweet fruit inside the prickly outer shell, they demand the work of looking.” Olesen has done a lot of that work, closely observing the world in its gritty and gorgeous detail. She excels at emotional honesty, for example in “First Marriage”, “Divorce”, “Splitting” and “Burning Over”, which explore well-worn themes without self-dramatization or a trace of self-pity. If I had to choose one phrase to sum up this poet, it would be “clear-eyed.” She studies other people with curiosity and empathy, and lays claim to her own feelings with directness and courage. The general theme of this thoughtful collection is lost loves and missed connections, dead or never-born relationships that live in memory. The poet tells us, “I know what it is/to want all the things I can’t name…” These poems name many such things in an utterly convincing way.
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