It’s not often that we see a true collaboration in a single volume of poetry. We’ve seen a plethora of anthologies that bring together a number of poets and even volumes that address a single theme by various poets, each presenting their poems. But seldom do we see two or three poets working together, interweaving and reworking each other’s pieces to create a volume where the poets’ names appear on the cover and title page, but not identified with any of the 50+ poems within the book.
This takes a different skill set, not to mention trust, vision and a focus among the three writers to produce a project such as Chalk Song (Lily Poetry Review Books 2022). Poets Gale Batchelder, Susan Berger-Jones and Judson Evans have created a unique and dynamic book, mythic in scope. It will appeal to a wide range of readers from lovers of contemporary poetry, to anthropologists, to art historians, to those who tune in to more experimental (yet here, always accessible) writing.
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It should be mentioned that the beautiful book design by Martha McCollough adds another layer of depth to the book. I especially found the graphics that introduce each section to hold their own poetic power.
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It’s interesting to note that the book’s jumping off point was a documentary film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog. To quote from the authors’ opening “Comment on Collaboration (ix), (This film) . . .”which inspired our experiment in collaboration, traces multiple approaches to the provocative otherness of stunning Paleolithic cave art.” One of the attributes of this book is that it creates through precise literary language and poetic forms, a strong visual connection that plays out in the mind of the reader. As a companion to Chalk Song, I’d suggest that the reader visit (or revisit) the Herzog film.
As I read this remarkable book, one thought took me back to Stanley Diamond’s 1986 poetry book, Going West. In the preface/bio to this book, it names Diamond as “a poet turned anthropologist turned poet.” He is also the author of In Search of the Primitive: a Critique of Civilizations and Totems. When I finished Chalk Song, I immediately started it again. The book gives us the pleasure of multiple reads; each poem stands alone and offers insight and many times, cosmic wit. Readers are taken on a pleasurable and rewarding deep dive. Taken as a whole, the book creates an investigation of who we are, and were. And as the saying goes, if you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going. I also thought this would be a book that Joseph Campbell would enjoy and would bring to light his own comments on these poems. The books I enjoy most are the ones that take me on journeys but then also lead me to new and sometimes old familiar pathways that continue my studies of humankind. Chalk Song offers this duel reward: a layered, meditative literary experience—and—a jumping off point for further self-reflection and how each of us fits into the grand scheme of our human story.
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There are too many poems that I noted to give the total scope of the literary achievement here, but let me offer just a few lines that will offer a glint of light for what is in store for the reader:
From “Communicating Vessels”:
I learn by being listened for, see
by being sought. Your face stirs
the underground wind of there/not there
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from “Bird Brain”:
You open body’s empty purse, climb
inside to costume yourself
in lookout and camouflage.
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From: My Tattoo Parlor”
The more I threw the sky into my eyes, the more the earth blued.
The more I hummed to blue, the more raindrops shattered. Stars fell
to each side of the pond, as if light was icing for our universe.
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from “Elegy in the Bevel”
You were always the laughter, ripper out
of leaves before the last pages, nothing
in reserve. Catenaries of spider silk
collect a land bridge between us.
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I also want to add a few words of praise from others who spoke to the merit of Chalk Song:
John Yau, author of Genghis Kahn on Drums reflects: “(Chalk Song) is an extraordinary book full of gorgeous music pulling you into its deep and fantastic crevices.”
Lisa Jarnot, author of Joie de Vivre Selected Poems 1992-2012 notes: “(Chalk Song is) . . .a serious meditation on the deep dark places that make us the complicated and beautiful creatures we are.”
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Chalk Song is a major achievement and should find a place on your bookshelf, and then be read often. Or even better, placed on your bedside table. It’s the perfect collection to dip into before your own dreamscapes begin. L. Carr, Lightwood magazine
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Chalk Song, Author Bios:
Susan Berger-Jones is an architect and poet. Her written and visual work has appeared in Drunken Boat, No Exit, and two anthologies of ekphrastic poems published by Off the Park Press.
Gale Batchelder lives in Cambridge. Her work has been published Tupelo Quarterly, This Rough Beast, Colorado Review, SpoKe4, and in the poetry anthologies New Smoke (2009) and Triumph of Poverty (2011).
Judson Evans is a poet whose work focuses on crossing genres collaboration. He was recently named Haibun editor of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America. In 2007, he was chosen as an “emerging poet” by John Yau for the Academy of American Poets.
Lightwood 