Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other x Danielle Dutton (DRC)

176 pages.

First published April 23, 2024 (Coffee House Press)

Mixed anthology.

I’m that special kind of Philistine: I don’t read very much poetry (although I’d like to). My reason is that I’m a very literal person: I’m science-trained, and that’s become my approach to literature and to art, too. Cause, effect. It’s a challenge when it comes to surrealist and experimental writing, and was likely why I struggled at first with Dutton’s collection.

But, like with some poetry and a lot of surrealism, the more I got into Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other, the more I liked it. It began to work on me. I’m a big fan of quirk (no matter what I declared above), and I like patterns, both of which are in this collection (—and the divide between science and art is a false dichotomy, anyway). Also, mystery. Each of the words in the title is a separate section n the book. Prairie is complicated, but it’s about women, and fear, and motherhood, and love, and loss, in soaring language and beautiful landscapes. It’s also very spooky, and disorienting, about that liminal place between daily life and terror. (Women write this so well!) Dresses is much more approachable, extracting sections from much-loved literature (I found it delightful). Art explores translation through the relationship between literature and visual art. Other is about writing, and Kant, and anxiety, and Rivera Garza, and also a play that plunges readers, if they’d gotten complacent, right back into surreality.

Is this collection for everyone? Probably not, but nothing is. I read it in one sitting, and enjoyed many of the trips it took me on. Someone (I don’t remember who) once said the point of poetry is language, and Dutton has an amazing facility with making word pictures. Someone else said to thumb your nose at those who want high-brow interpretation of poetry (and art, and everything else) because the point is in how and whether it speaks to you. So, although I wish I had an MFA so I can tell you about all of the symbolism and other mysterious things in here, maybe it doesn’t really matter. Sometimes art is pretty, and inexplicable, and you must approach it with humility; and that’s quite alright.

Many thanks to Coffee House Press and to Edelweiss for early access.

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