Lytton Smith's The Square,
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Published by New Michigan Press, Lytton Smith’s The Square focuses on the political protest movements that have occurred in recent years, including in Egypt, Tehran, and the United States. Aptly named, this chapbook measures 8"x8", physically square and including numerous poems in square-shaped forms. This conceit of "the square" is not only literal, though—Smith also thinks through the shape's figurative representations. Indeed, the book's formal arrangements mirror its content, highlighting the connection between the square as a shape and between the conflicts that stem from (the often arbitrary and ambiguous nature of) borders. Smith writes, "For the particles to remain contained within the square nothing / must be broadcast from it. Bodies must be beaten back and down. The excited must be subdued." In other words, change can only occur when we break through the square's assigned boundaries. In addition to playing with form, Smith uses sensory detail to draw the reader into the uprisings he describes. He writes: The lit touchpapers, the begetting of trouble. Thereafter. Bricks hefted into palms. Hands fabricating against tear gas makeshift masks. As cloths to face coverings so coups to democracy. (8) ... After the square there will be the promise of voting, of a voice. To vote will be to pull a lever, the body’s jointed elbow bending at the hinge as ligaments contract the biceps with the machine. (33). ... To gather is to hustle together an acquaintance with strangers who want to want the same thing. (34) This chapbook spans sixty-one pages, and yet—according to the table of contents--The Square is all one poem, despite its myriad forms. With this choice, Smith rejects the idea of division and borders, allowing disparate pages to come together to form one cohesive contemplation. Subverting our typical associations, this book's square does not seek to categorize or exclude. Rather, Smith shows readers what is possible when we join together and challenge these boundaries: "Let the mood change and let the square be / as public tonight as are the constellations / of any and all of the gathered." ⋆ |
Lytton Smith is the author of three published poetry collections: The Square (New Michigan Press, 2021), While You Were Approaching the Spectacle But Before You Were Transformed By It (Nightboat Books) and The All-Purpose Magical Tent (Nightboat Books). He has also translated several novels and works of nonfiction from the Icelandic. He is a 2019 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship. He is Director of the Center of Integrative Learning at SUNY Geneseo.
Marissa Ahmadkhani holds an MA in English from Cal Poly SLO and splits her time between the Bay Area and Costa Mesa, CA. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Southern Indiana Review, the minnesota review, Radar Poetry, and poets.org, where she received the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2015 and 2017. Currently, she is pursuing an MFA at the University of California, Irvine and serves as Assistant Editor of The West Review.
Marissa Ahmadkhani holds an MA in English from Cal Poly SLO and splits her time between the Bay Area and Costa Mesa, CA. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Southern Indiana Review, the minnesota review, Radar Poetry, and poets.org, where she received the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2015 and 2017. Currently, she is pursuing an MFA at the University of California, Irvine and serves as Assistant Editor of The West Review.