June 12th, 2009 / 11:06 pm
Uncategorized

Emily Frey’s Airport

airport

I’ve been meaning to link to Emily Frey’s impressive book of short poems Airport for a little while. I’ve read it three or four times, and have enjoyed it.

I think, though, it is fair to say that I remain intimidated by poetry, as I am merely a prose writer who wishes he had the facility to express himself poetically with the power that a rare few do.

When I get intimidated, I figure it’s best to just say what I like about a piece of work and let the rest discover it without the subtracting influence of my numb-fingered, foggy-brained keyboard tappings on the it. Here goes.

Here is, I think, my favorite piece. It feels central to me:

How do we live
much less

breath
in this place

of potential
disaster?

I don’t mean
burning clouds

but the people
on the ground

ready to
forget us

before we
come down

I am, and have been ever since my teens, a nervous flyer. I spend my time in airports walking back and forth from terminal to terminal, waiting for the layover to end, looking at the public art or moving through the weirdly lit tunnels. I’m usually on a mild sedative, too. So I experience airports in small doses. In vague stills. In time lapse.

Frey’s Airport seems to me to do the same. The pieces seem to fall together, ordered by a disorderly consciousness.

We’re on the plane. We’re off the plane. We’re spinning in the revolving doors. We’re getting something to eat. We’re waiting for our baggage. We’re existing in the airport, the unplace place in every city.

It’s not the undestination. Not the antidestination. It’s, I don’t know, the adestination. It doesn’t care if you are going there or not.

That comes through in Airport. That’s why I like it.

Also, really beautiful piece of work. The “cover” is gorgeous. And the designer from Blue Hour Press set all the titles in Frutiger, the font originally designed for the Charles De Gaulle International Airport that one sees—according to the note on the type—in almost all airports.

EMILY FREY’S AIRPORT.

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16 Comments

  1. KevinS

      Emily’s e-book is almost as great as Caves.
      I really liked it.

  2. KevinS

      Emily’s e-book is almost as great as Caves.
      I really liked it.

  3. Michael J

      Thanks for this. Always helps another struggling poet contemplating the pointlessness of why he writes if no one is listening and doesn’t write like the status quo.

      She seems to speak to people and, even though she isn’t tailoring it for people per se, she seems to have her own stuff going on. This is cool.

  4. Michael J

      Thanks for this. Always helps another struggling poet contemplating the pointlessness of why he writes if no one is listening and doesn’t write like the status quo.

      She seems to speak to people and, even though she isn’t tailoring it for people per se, she seems to have her own stuff going on. This is cool.

  5. Michael J

      oh, and for the chapbook design alone, I would completely buy this thing. I want to hold it in my hands. Put it with my other books just to show those other books how cool chapbooks can be. No doubt.

      That cover and the inside flap?…awesome…

  6. Michael J

      oh, and for the chapbook design alone, I would completely buy this thing. I want to hold it in my hands. Put it with my other books just to show those other books how cool chapbooks can be. No doubt.

      That cover and the inside flap?…awesome…

  7. martin wall

      a goddamm impressive quote. From this example, you seem to have a pretty good eye on poetry. Good sensors.

  8. martin wall

      a goddamm impressive quote. From this example, you seem to have a pretty good eye on poetry. Good sensors.

  9. Matthew Simmons

      Thanks, all. Such a good book.

      Sensors, maybe I have. But the ability to boil down, to compress, to render so succintly? So perfectly? Like this?

      I leave that to my betters.

      Like Emily.

      I can identify the central image only because that shit sucks me into its maelstrom. I’m spinning, here.

  10. Matthew Simmons

      Thanks, all. Such a good book.

      Sensors, maybe I have. But the ability to boil down, to compress, to render so succintly? So perfectly? Like this?

      I leave that to my betters.

      Like Emily.

      I can identify the central image only because that shit sucks me into its maelstrom. I’m spinning, here.

  11. martin wall

      maybe. she is really something. goodgoddmm, the way she makes me rethink line breaks. brain party.

  12. martin wall

      maybe. she is really something. goodgoddmm, the way she makes me rethink line breaks. brain party.

  13. ryan manning

      An airport is a location where aircraft such as aeroplanes, helicopters, and blimps take off and land.

  14. ryan manning

      An airport is a location where aircraft such as aeroplanes, helicopters, and blimps take off and land.

  15. Kevin O'Neill

      This is good.

  16. Kevin O'Neill

      This is good.