The anxiety of being pressed into gender is highlighted throughout the collection; of trying to fulfill both parental roles when they are separated so severely in everyday life, and just finding the ability to express without being overwhelmed. Fragments of the natural world are caught up in memories and they feel like snapshots in motion, without leaving them feeling like flat images.

There is a blurring quality to many of the verses; the intent it sets out early on is to blur concepts of gender and language, but at some points, the fever dream imagery distracted me, instead of keeping with the rest of the verse. But to the point of being poetry, and poetry doing what it wants, Schlegel does it beautifully.

Great book of poetry. I would definitely recommend - it was moving and engaging and you should add it to your list!

While these poems were very well-written and enjoyable, they simply didn't click with me. I don't know if it's because it's too high brow literary and so at times I couldn't feel that invested in the poetry. However, I would recommend this book to anyone that loves poetry.

Poignant and lyrical; Schlegel's poetry collection empasizes on the structures that limits gender and on the role of a parent.

"I think I'm more alive than I feel."

I really want to enjoy this book but it fell short for me. I did love some of the collection but it didn't connect well with me.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really intriguing book of poetry. Most of it didn't really vibe that well with me personally but the quality is definitely there. I did love 52 Trees and Wind Rings a Bell the Wind Can't Reach. They were absolutely lovely. I'd recommend y'all check it out for yourselves.

A different kind of freedom
is throwing rocks
into the lake and knowing the lake’s response.



In the Tree Where the Double Sex Sleeps by Rob Schlegel is the 2018 Iowa Poetry Prize Winner. Schlegel is the author of The Lesser Fields and January Machine. He lives and teaches in Washington state.

In the Tree Where the Double Sex Sleeps is a father's look at the world and his place as a complete parent. Leaves make many appearances through the collection as trees are genderless as a whole, but contain both sexes to produce fertilized seed. In nature, the role of gender is different. Humans have created patterns into which everyone needs to fit. There is a freedom in nature:

Near the fountain, a few deer, rich with insides
different from mine, but the same,
incorporated as I am, though wired to nothing

The long poem "Novella" dominates this collection with a childhood view of life and parents. The role of natural elements leaves an eerie, dreamlike remembrance of bees, owls, and a terrible prophecy. The word use and lyrical quality of the writing create a haunting but compelling feeling:

The meaning I’m trying to protect is
the heart is neither boy, nor girl. I close my hand
around the stem and pull.

The third section of the collection the poet becomes the parent himself. He is the father who wishes to be the mother to his children. The long poem "Threat Perception" is his adult version of "Novella" looking at his own children -- a son and daughter. There are not bees and owls but serpents and spiders. The shift from industry and wisdom to evil and fear as the poet's view changes from child to father. The collection closes on that note with a reflection once again on trees. A thought-provoking, lyrical, and image-rich collection of poetry in line with the tradition of the Iowa Poetry Prize.

I can appreciate poetry, but I'm not very confident in my abilities to read it and to mine the full beauty and talent of it all; having said that, take my rating for what you will. I read this slowly, and each page twice. Doing my best here.

Beautiful descriptive language abounds, and Schlegel constructs poems that flow easily, inviting the reader further along. A personal favorite of mine within the collection was Trees.

If you like poetry, why not give it a read? If you don't know if you do or not, then I would think that this is a quite capable place to start.

Many thanks to NetGalley and University of Iowa Press for the advance read.