Diamonds

In Guthrie's introspective fourth collection, she explores with humor and honesty the loneliness of being divorced at middle age. Literary and historical references abound as Guthrie muses on the potentially magical qualities of Sylvia Plath's prom dress, or imagines she is dating John Keats. Perhaps the funniest entry in the collection imagines a potential dating profile for 15th-century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. In response to the prompt "What I like," Bosch declares, "I like flanged mermaids who flirt with anonymous knights, visors down, both terminating piscinely." In the title poem, she addresses Judith Butler in a housework-inspired lament: "Judith Butler, I am calling you out/ here in the kitchen where I'm unloading the dishwasher/ performing my gender as I am wont to do." As the poem progresses, Guthrie (Articulated Lair) expresses nuanced feelings of guilt for her privileged life even as she wishes for more. Occasionally, the poems lean too much into cleverness over expressing a genuine sentiment ("So pathetic no wise investments/ Should've bought a 7-Eleven on a busy corner/ When I was seven or eleven"). Though the collection is mixed, readers will enjoy how Guthrie plumbs the depths of her vast literary knowledge. (Sept.)