Jaguar: Selected Poems

Weaving themes of loss, memory, and transformation, Holland-Batt (Fishing for Lightning) stuns in this powerful volume that draws from her previous collections. In “Pocket Mirror,” the hypnotic rhythm and sharp diction evoke an intensity reminiscent of Sylvia Plath’s work: “I stare, I stare—/ I am cut from clear air/ brutal and planetary.” Throughout, the natural world—urban or wild—gives voice to internal reckonings. Regret is conveyed through visceral imagery in “The Invention of Ether”: “Still I cling to the sting/ like the slobbering octopus/ I failed to rescue/ from boyish torturers/ on a Sicilian beach.” Likewise, in “Shore Acres,” the struggles of love and loss are expressed with stark finality: “Gathering the kind of force required/ to stop loving, as only a stone can.” In “The Art of Disappearing,” the poet captures the ache and paradox of impermanence: “When you vanish, you’re only somewhere else, but I’m still here.” In “The Sewing Room” and “A Good Marriage,” ordinary moments are transformed into meditations on legacy, individuality, and human connection. The hum of the sewing machine and the quiet rituals of shared lives become metaphors for the significant existential questions that permeate her work, “maps I would outgrow/ charted in painstaking tailor’s chalk.” It’s a dazzling achievement. (Nov.)