Impspired Title

HYPERBOLA

by SHELLY NORRIS

In her collection Hyperbola, Shelly Norris presents an honest and unapologetic collage of life “within the entropy of interesting times”. Against the backdrop of the unfolding Covid epidemic, she considers how to “wield attentive notice and not yield to the bitter and brittle”. Her poems celebrate the importance of the ordinary - preserving lemons or learning to use the mandolin – while commenting on societal developments and political topics with scathing critique. Eyes wide open to reality, her work is free from nostalgia, with precise language and keen observation of detail. Norris uses her voice to “forge the endless connections we desire, keep them free of rust.” A thought-provoking, multi-layered book. Agnes Vojta, author of A Coracle for Dreams (Spartan Press) Cardinals winging through this book remind an observant narrator that feeding, mating, and parenting are part of a natural order. Meanwhile, domestic human moments – scrubbing a kitchen, preserving lemons for winter, and tending a garden, a marriage, and an aging body – add up to a similar “contest for survival.” As the narrator bears witness to instability and corruption, old theories fail. Cause and effect defy fixed points on the hyperbola at the book’s center. Truth is messier, coming through personal stories that intersect with political and economic forces to integrate “the hard labor of living” and “the long work of dying.” But these poems don’t despair. Preserving things and language sustains this narrator. Each poem sprouts from a space between wanting and joy, shadow and light, or duty and magic ritual to conjure empathy and hope. Diane LeBlanc, author of The Feast Delayed (Terrapin Books) In Hyperbola Shelly Norris searches “an ancient / ache for something shiny / and continuous to believe” and through her music and cadence strives to capture some peace amidst political turmoil and a long and lonely pandemic with her gorgeous and sharp-edged poems, but finds “no words to sanctify / the narrow spaces between thirst.” She proclaims “It’s no crime to abandon mythologies” yet creates mythic archetypes just outside her window: “a solitary crow perched in a dead birch / solving Sudoku.” Through weaving images of hummingbird beak and hawk talon Norris delivers something magnificent and broken “more / than tetrahedral grist, more / than a ribbon of velvet solitude” and forms it into a prayer for us all: “I hope, as the road rose to meet you / you broke instantly from your body / your spirit flown free and clear.” Scott Ferry, author of each imaginary arrow (Impspired Press)