Whatcha Reading, Martha Silano?

Every week we ask an interesting figure what they're digging into. Have ideas who we should reach out to? Let it fly: info@seattlereviewofbooks.com. Want to read more? Check out the archives.

Martha Silano is the author of five poetry books, including the just-released Gravity Assist. As the Seattle Review of Books Poet in Residence for March, she's released three new poems over the past few weeks: Angel of the Wind, One More Monarch, and My Mother's Denial, with one more to come next Tuesday, March 26th. She'll be appearing May 17 at the Elliott Bay Book Company with Francesca Bell, Keetje Kuipers, and Tiffany Midge, then again May 22 at Third Place Books in Seward Park with Kevin Craft and Laura Da'.

What are you reading now?

The Octopus Museum by Brenda Shaughnessy, a book about what happens to a poet’s brain under the influence of our current administration, especially its policies regarding the treatment of children, women, the marginalized, the non-Christian, the non-white, and just about everyone else except those in power: the rich as f*ck, well-insured, lawyered-ed, and not terminally or mentally ill, womb-possessing, or addicted to opiates, to name a few. What happens when a writer is pushed to consider the end of civilization as we know it? Our precious ‘what was’ is overthrown by an even more repressive governing council known as the octopus overlords. I can’t even begin to summarize the wonders of this book. The poems express desperation, cynicism, misery and heartbreak, yet somehow there’s levity, playfulness, and wisdom at every turn. The poems are elastic and inflexible, wobbly and strong. In “No Traveler Returns,” the speaker introduces herself as a mother, a lover, a “wild tentacled screaming creature,” “gasoline,” a forgetter, and a knower of numbers. And that’s just the first poem. Shaughnessy’s poems demand multiple readings, which is always a good sign. After half a dozen or more reads, I start to think I have a handle on what’s she’s up to, though thankfully not quite. Is this an accessible book? Not so much. Am I enthralled by the subject matter, word play, voice, and cadences? Hell, yes.

Psst: I’m also currently reading:

What did you read last?

Confession: I had never read Animal Farm. I recently had the pleasure of seeing a stage production of it at my daughter’s school, and I am so glad I did! My daughter had been bugging me for months to read the book before I saw the play. However, after seeing the play I ran home and read the book in one sitting. What’s not to love about Orwell and, in particular, a bunch of talking animals getting languaged out of their fair share? An apt book for our times. I need to read 1984 next (yes, another classic I managed to duck out on), but it will have to wait till the summer, because…

What are you reading next?

Ladder of Shadows by the great Gustaf Sobin (1935-2005). Why? Because I just finished reading Sobin’s Luminous Debris. (Surprise, I am usually reading four or more books at once). Sobin lived for many years in Provence. Spoiler alert: he is not Peter Mayle. Instead, Sobin writes utterly gorgeous lyrical essays about early human history — moon goddesses, weird-ass mirrors, toponyms, the cult of skulls, a Roman aqueduct that went from being a life-giving font of spring water to a way to flush out the sewers of Nimes. No guarantees, but I am positing Ladder of Shadows, with its chapter headings Thinde Sarcophagi of Arles, the Dark Ages A History of Omissions, and Mary Magdalene the Odiferous, will be a spellbindingly good read.