Sarah O'Brien
Catch Light
Coffee House Press
2009
116 pages
Paperback
$16


I do not have time these days to write full-on reviews of poetry, and nor was I going to write a word about O'Brien's book. I read the book sometime late last year, and I have moved on to other projects, other books, other things. However, out of nowhere, this book continues to call itself up in my memory. At the time of the reading, I felt the book's metaphor field was efficient but perhaps too narrow--light, in all of its capacities. I also felt there was too much of a Cole Swensen presence in it, with whom O'Brien studied at Iowa. However, there is a kind of considerate culling, and an otherworldiness, a looseness of frequencies, that is very appealing. O'Brien has a hovering touch, a light grace, yet the plots have sparked arcs. A serious arena.