Throaty Wipes

This poetry collection from Holbrook (Joy Is so Exhausting) finds its connecting theme in skillful experimentation. It is a highly enthusiastic body of work that employs wildly varied forms, including free verse, found poetry, shape poetry, play with typesetting, and far more inventive expression. Indeed, the inventiveness is what sustains the collection in places where the poetry grows distant. Holbrook’s quite impressive sense of play is balanced with a self-referential approach that keeps readers from fully understanding what she is putting on display or why. In that sense, the book as a whole mirrors some of the more abstract or found pieces in which components are visibly withheld or mismatched, and sorting them out can be part of the fun and engagement with the text. But over the course of the book, it’s hard for readers to sustain investment because they are perpetually held at arm’s length. Without meaning or context, the poems do not linger in one’s memory as more intimate poems can. Despite that, there is much to like in this collection, and Holbrook’s work is always worth reading, even when it’s overly ephemeral. (May)