Amanda Paradise: Resurrect Extinct Vibration

"We are too fragile for the/ world we are making," writes CAConrad in the riveting latest installment to their "(soma)tic poetry rituals," which respond to interpersonal violence and damage to the earth. These pages explore extinction and the "vibrations" of species which have been lost: "telling someone who they are/ instead of asking is where/ extinction gets its start." The language takes on small but sinuous shapes separate from the page's left margin, and many are love poems written in a collage-like style. The epic sequence "72 Corona Transmutations" reflects on intimacy and mourning as shaped by the AIDS crisis and Covid-19. "All I have ever wanted was to/ forge the English language into/ a spear," CAConrad writes, but not in order to harm others; instead, they desire their own transformation, to "drive it into my heart." This book cements CAConrad as a deeply original voice committed to plumbing humanity's plights in unusual ways. (Sept.)