229 pages
Published 2020
Read from April 27 to April 29
Rating: 4 out of 5
In the last year and a half, I've spent a lot of time on poetry Twitter. Twitter may be a horrible toxic site run by fascist apologists who let violent right-wing extremists spread disinformation and make threats with impunity, but it also has a way of forming algorithm-linked little communities that, most of the time, remain largely free of the horrors of the surrounding site. Writers and small press lit-mag editors share a delightful corner of Twitter, and it's been a treat to count myself among them.
On the specialized niche of poetry Twitter inhabited by nature poets, Entangled Life and Robert Macfarlane's Underland share an outsize reputation as books of mind-opening wonder. There have been entire issues of poetry journals dedicated to Deep Time poems inspired by Underland. I believe there may have been mycological issues inspired by Entangled Life, though I'm less certain about that.
In some ways I feel let down that I haven't felt the same depth of astonishment for either book. In other ways, I think my reaction was muffled because neither of these concepts -- Deep Time in Underland, the hidden mycelium world in Entangled Life -- are new to me. I've swum through the old ways and the hidden realms nearly my whole life. Which is not to say I'm adept at transforming any of it into poetry, sadly. Just that these books couldn't split my mind open to the wonders of Earth because I already enjoyed intimacy with these ideas.
Entangled Life is a lovely work of pop science mixed with a dash of fungal philosophy. I'm happy it has become the cultural force that it is. I'm a little jealous of how strongly other readers have reacted to it.
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