Fog and Smoke

Katie Peterson's Fog and Smoke is very much a collection of its time as it explores life within a pandemic and a climate crisis. No doubt its relevancy will remain as we navigate our lives in societies irrevocably changed by Covid-19 and in a world increasingly showing signs of abnormal and rapid climate change.

The first section, Fog, reflects upon the isolation felt during the pandemic and how this impacted us, often far deeper than we would care to admit. While the detachment and fragmentary nature of this poem deliberately mirrors how many of us felt, I found it difficult to connect with it as a result. But again, perhaps that is the very point, it just didn't read as well as Peterson's later poems in this collection because as Peterson then writes about parenthood, birth and death, and then crisis, the human at the centre of it all became palpably relatable.

In these later poems, Peterson's style is steeped in line-level brilliance, romantic narrative and this constant sense of time being far too fleeting. I felt the ache, the desire for everything to slow down, despite just coming out of a time where things came to a standstill. This juxtaposition is caught in Peterson's work, masterfully. And so, despite my difficulties with the opening part, I can appreciate Peterson's intentions and dedication to poetic craft.

A graceful and vivid collection of poems addressing climate change, climate grief and environmental crisis. I am so glad this book will soon be out in the world--urgent and necessary reading.

I really enjoyed this short collection. Katie Peterson's writing is evocative and compelling. The second half of the book, focused on wildfires and living with climate change; I found these poems particularly poignant.

Great blend of the anxieties and wonders of parenthood against the natural disaster of our world unraveling! Definitely worth your time when it comes out early next year.

Peterson may as well have been wielding a sledgehammer. That's how affected I was by some of her lyrical poetry...
Her stream-of-consciousness style had me gripping the edge of every seat, windowsill, and bed I sat on. The moments of life that were highlighted felt like reading a personal journal. Wherein Peterson finds something that moves her and then proceeds to move us with it.
Particularly, her third movement or chapter where she begins to delve into familial relationships via American cultural understanding- whether that be through immigration or fire maps. The visceral reaction that my body had to Stars, Days, Words, and Argument with a Child left me breathless. I understand as a mother to my own this awe of what you helped to create and the feeling of tug-a-war over autonomy.
This is a work of a master wordsmith and I recommend it to anyone willing to look within their own stream of consciousness for that shred of humanity you may have seem to have lost within these last few years.