by daithí

After listening to D. Avery read at Jaquith, I thought I would dive into two of her chapbooks. And I was not disappointed. Chicken Shift (Exeter Press, 2013, Third Printing) and For the Girls (Exeter Press 2016, First Edition) were surprisingly different in theme and mood.

Reading Chicken Shift took me back to Burma Shave signs on undivided highways when I was a kid or deliciously humorous poetry by Ogden Nash. If you look a little more closely at the subtitle, Poems of Crossings & Roadkill, you most likely would adjust your expectations. Then, you turn the cover page and get to the dedication: ” Henrietta, Billy-Bob, and Blossom… To these three great hens and to my true good friends, thanks,” and wonder what kind of book is this? What I can tell you is that I have not had so much fun reading a chapbook of poetry in years.

However, when I opened For the Girls by D. Avery, it amazed me how different the book was in substantial ways. I have heard chicken road-crossing jokes forever. Listening, however, closely to someone tell you what it was like, first-hand, to be diagnosed with breast cancer changes the mood of the reader. Instead of a whimsical, predictable rhyme scheme, D. Avery has chosen fewer rhymes in order to present a more somber theme. The poet shares and reflects upon the various stages of recognition within herself as she moves along a dubious continuum. In addition, she captures levels of sensitivity or insensitivity from those who claim to care. 

How could two chapbooks be so different in format and form and still be written by the same poet? Years ago, I had come across a book by Dr. Anna Lembke, a Stanford psychiatrist. Within the book, Dr. Lembke showed that you can’t experience highs without feeling lows as well. In other words, D. Avery could write two very different books because she was receptive to both funny as well as sad things. But don’t take my word for it, check it out yourself.

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