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From Catalog to Controversy: Review of听Rick Barot鈥檚听The Galleons

Amie Whittemore

Reviewed:听The Galleons听by Rick Barot听(Milkweed Editions, 2020)

鈥淭he far points now near, more present than the present,鈥� Rick Barot writes in the opening poem (鈥淭he Grasshopper and The Cricket鈥�) of听The Galleons,听his fourth collection, ushering readers into a richly peopled and textured collection guided by a truly curious and insightful mind: what do history鈥檚 galleons deliver to us? And what do we make of these all too often problematic gifts?

There are ten galleons in Barot鈥檚 collection, each one a different ship, delivering its difficult, complex, sometimes harrowing, sometimes lovely, treasure. In 鈥淭he Galleons I,鈥� the speaker contemplates the intersection of the personal and the political explicitly:

听 听 听 听 听 her story is a part of something larger, it is a part
听 听 听 听 听 of history. No, her story is an illumination

听 听 听 听 听 of history, a matchstick in the black seam of time.
听 听 听 听 听 Or, no, her story is separate

听 听 听 听 听 from the whole, as distinct as each person is distinct
听 听 听 听 听 from the stream of people that led

听 听 听 听 听 to the one and leads past the one. Or, her story
听 听 听 听 听 is surrounded by history, the ambient spaciousness

Barot鈥檚 speaker goes on, rethinking and restructuring the human relationship to history through metaphor (later history is 鈥渁 net,鈥� then 鈥渢he galleon鈥� on which the 鈥渟he鈥� in this poem travels the Pacific). Through these transformations, Barot attempts completeness, attempts to contain the complexity that perpetually lies outside the full grasp of language.

As the speaker in 鈥淭he Flea鈥� confesses, Barot has 鈥渁 grudging faith // in the particular,鈥� and each poem rich in historical and contemporary detail. These poems are not so much poems of witness, but participation, always engaged with the thing at hand鈥攁 long lost galleon, a grandmother鈥檚 hands鈥�and听the background, the web of culture in which the thing is perpetually and complexly ensnared. Take, for instance, 鈥淪till Life with Helicopters,鈥� which opens with the propagation of rudimentary helicopters across the world, 鈥渃hildren in China played with bamboo toys // whose propellers, thin and light as dragonfly / wings, were set on a sharpened stick and spun,鈥� before manufactured on a mass scale: 鈥渢here are as many / different kinds of helicopters now as there are // uses for them.鈥� Then the poem leaps from catalog to controversy as the speaker contemplates the helicopter looming over a protest in Oakland: 鈥減rotestors swarm onto / the 580 Freeway and shut it down, protesting // the grand jury鈥檚 decision in Ferguson, Missouri.鈥� Barot then disrupts the description of the protest by returning his focus to what鈥檚 near at hand: 鈥淭he police and the news helicopters are / what I hear as I sit at the desk, the desk and its // world of things: the black notebook, the pencils.鈥� 听This mimetic disruption is powerful as it breaks the spell of the poem, the spell of writing the poem: we cannot get so lost in the sensuality of particular facts and figures without losing sight of the often oppressive systemic, abstract webs that contain them. Barot鈥檚 ability to shift focus swiftly in order to address the simultaneity of existence with such grace is part of the pleasure of reading this book鈥攚e get to be everywhere, all at once, with him as our guide. 听

One of the many things I love about this collection is that while it contemplates past and present traumas and inequities, Barot is also interested in the possibility of the soul鈥檚 enrichment through cultural transactions as well. In 鈥淰irginia Woolf鈥檚 Walking Stick,鈥� the speaker weeps on seeing the stick she used when walking to her death, recalls how her work reached him in college 鈥渄espite the differences that should have made the affinity // impossible鈥攖he years between us, gender and class / and race. But there we were.鈥� This collection situates Barot as a champion of the human soul, for these poems confront the worst in us while still tapping into human gentleness, creativity, and verve. This balance is most aptly struck in the poems that feature his听, who serves as a 鈥減articular鈥� whose story limns a broader history. Perhaps most touching is 鈥淭he Galleons 5,鈥� in which the speaker interviews the grandmother in a series of couplets: the first line of each one being in the grandmother鈥檚 voice, the second line in the grandson鈥檚. This duet succeeds in the task of creating a truly polyphonic poem without losing narrative clarity: 鈥渨hat we know most deeply鈥�we guard best,鈥� Barot writes.

Near the end of the collection, the speaker in 鈥淏roke Mirror Against Tree Trunk鈥� laments: 鈥淟onger than I can remember, I have prayed to the patron saint / of eyesight for a new way, a new accuracy.鈥� This is every poet鈥檚 prayer, and I think it鈥檚 been answered in Barot鈥檚 case. Each poem offers its insights, its particulars, its questions so wonderfully, I leave the book overwhelmed and renewed: the world鈥檚 muchness, which can so often feel unbearable, is also key to its splendor. To see even part of it with Barot鈥檚 acuity is a gift.