Poetry Review - "And Yet" by Kate Baer

in #poetrylast year

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“Bored of bad moods and winter/gloom, my ambition goes off to war.”

This is the striking beginning to Kate Baer’s “And Yet”, a collection that encompasses motherhood, grief, love, and loss as so many other similar collections do, but is starkly set apart by Baer’s unique, introspective voice and approachable, heart-wrenching words. These poems speak in candid form and yet do not lose their beauty in doing so, but rather embrace a universal and timely portrait of womanhood’s existence.

“Take comfort in your bold heart/where hope and fear are mingling.”

Much of Baer’s strength is in her duality; her ability to be at once accessible and individualistic, specific and universal, angry and so, deeply tender. The emotion here is often fleeting, never fixating on a sadness for too long, and yet it is this levity that really gives great breadth to the collection overall, never settling but instead constantly moving over heavy considerations as Baer reminds us that life never stops.

“There is a temptation for the poets/to write as if they haven’t lived in the/modern world.”

Baer approaches motherhood, the pandemic, weaponized incompetence, & our overtly masculine culture in a very real and honest way that does not attempt to encompass the feelings of an entire population, but merely speaks to her own thoughts and feelings that, in a roundabout way, become relatable in and of themselves and speak in broader terms to a group of women who feel alone in their experiences only to realize that they are, in fact, at the helm of systemic brokenness.

“there will always be a death/dressed as a question, waiting alone/in that godforsaken dark.”

Reminiscent of Maggie Smith in her approaches to life and motherhood/womanhood in general, there is nothing but truth in these words that are at once beautiful, deeply relatable, and highly approachable. Baer does not put on airs, nor does she heighten her language unnecessarily, but rather balances loveliness with relatability and softness with intensity in the most skillful way. I highly recommend this collection as an immersive read that leaves room for one’s own considerations among its truly astounding vignettes.

You can find a copy for yourself at The Spiral Bookcase!


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