Douglas Kearney, _Sho_

 I READ THIS just prior to reading Optic Subwoof, thinking it would help me to read Kearney's recent poetry before reading (and reviewing) his lectures on poetics. Help me it certainly did--in fact, I think I ended up reading Optic Subwoof through the lens of Sho.

The poem "Sho" acts as a kind of intersection for several of the collection's energies. It is a torchon--a form I had not previously heard of, but which seems to involve a cycling-through of end words, like a sestina, but in a more particular pattern, derived from lacemaking (Kearney credits Indigo Weller with creating the form). Kearney is ingenious with form--that's one energy. At the same time, "sho" is how the BAVE pronunciation of "sure" is often orthographically rendered; the poem quotes an example, "'Sho / gwine fix dis mess.'" "Sho" also homonymically summons "show," as in the business of performance, with its high forms like tragedy and its popular forms like the old chitlin circuit.

            Rig
full o' Deus. "Sho
gwine fix dis mess." Spit

In tragedy's good
eye! "This one's called...."Jig
ger gogglers then bow

housefully. They clap.
"...be misundeeeerstoooood!"
Hang notes high or deep,

make my tongue a bow--
what's the gift?! My good
song vox?

We are at the intersection of Blackness and performance,  but also at the intersection of American Blackness and violence: "Bloody / inkpot of Body, // I stay nib dipped, show / never run dry!" Reading the poem and then hearing/seeing him read it on YouTube is a good preparation for diving into Optic Subwoof.

Not every poem in Sho is the rapid fire tour de force that "Sho" is, but the whole volume continually surprises. It's often funny ("Eulogy for a Pair of Kicks"), but the humor can sit right next to anger ("Promissory Note"), or right next to family feeling ("Close"), or right next to spirituality ("Fire"). Kearney moves fast. It takes some readerly quickness to keep up with him, but he's worth it.