Member Reviews
Supply Chain by Pimone Triplett is a collection of modern poetry from Kuhl House Poets of the University of Iowa Press. Other poets in this group include Vanessa Roveto, Sarah V. Schweig, and Randall Potts. Triplett is the author of The Price of Light (Four Way Books, 2005) and Ruining the Picture (Triquarterly / Northwestern, 1998). She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa. Currently, she teaches at the University of Washington and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.
Supply Chain is an interesting collection of modern or non-traditional poetry. Most of the poems are short rapid fire phrases and thoughts when the line are read as natural stops. Perhaps this may be the links in the supply "chain."
The opening poem "Round Earth's Corner":
Take operation’s shimmy all the way back
to the spot where my hand on the fridge handle
unhands whole networks: PG&E pumping
Tracing the fridge handle back to its basic raw materials. The mining of the coal. The supply chain that allows you to reach for leftovers inside your refrigerator.
Triplett sets together poems of connection and contrast. "On the Nutshells of Unexplained Death and Other Miniatures." was another favorite of mine made even better after reading the notes on the poem. It was inspired by the forensic work of Frances Glessner Lee, who created detailed dioramas of crime scenes. Words take meaning in shades some subtle like, "Dreaming, our genie, en-gendering ingenious edens on set" and others quite are obvious like the play on Laika in "I Dream of Jeannie: Parabolic Lens". "To All the Houseplants I Have Killed" is a wonderful collection of words, meanings, and images.
Triplett writes poetry that appeals to a deeper and thoughtful reading for its full enjoyment. One must watch the words and feel their meanings. A complex but rewarding collection.
Overall a decent collection of poetry. There were some gems (I especially loved the poem about becoming the things you kill after you die) and some images definitely stuck with me. On the flipside, there were some poems with language so academic and distant that I had trouble connecting with them (and I'm saying this as a voracious reader with an English degree). So, as with most collections of just about anything, it ended up being a mixed bag.