Subterranean

by Jill Bialosky

Jill Bialosky follows her acclaimed debut collection, The End of Desire , with this powerful sequence of poems that probes the subterranean depths of eros. Gerald Stern has called Bialosky “the poet of the secret garden, the place, at once, of grace and sadness,” and here she enters that garden again, blending the classical with the contemporary in bold considerations of desire, fertility, virginity, and childbirth. Written against the idealizations of romantic love and motherhood, she tells of the loss of one child and the birth of another, the fierce passions of life before children, the seductions of suicide, and the comforts of art. Throughout, she braids and unbraids the distinct yet often inseparable themes of motherhood, love, and sexuality. “When he comes to me,” she writes,

half-filled glass
in his hand, wanting
me to touch him, I hear
you stir in your crib. I know what your body      
  feels like.
The soft skin of a flower, not bruised, not yet
  in torment . . .

Subterranean is the moving and intimate account of the emergence of a female psyche. Like the figures of Persephone and Demeter, who appear in various forms in these poems, Bialosky finds a strange beauty in grief, and emerges from the realms of temptation with insight and distinction.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2001

About the author

Jill Bialosky was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She studied for her undergraduate degree at Ohio University and received a Master of Arts degree from the Writing Seminars at The Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Iowa Writer's Workshop.

Her collections of poems are Subterranean (Alfred A. Knopf, 2001) and The End of Desire (1997). Bialosky is also the author of the novel House Under Snow (2002) and The Life Room (2007) and co-editor, with Helen Schulman, of the anthology Wanting A Child (1998).

Her poems and essays appear in The New Yorker, O Magazine, Paris Review, The Nation, The New Republic, Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review among other publications.

Bialosky has received a number of awards including the Elliot Coleman Award in Poetry. She is currently an editor at W. W. Norton & Company and lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Ricky Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subterranean is a stunning collection of poems that reads like a novel in vignettes. It is evocative and engrossing as Bialosky mines the melancholy and malaise of motherhood. The poet beautifully renders her experiences from failed pregnancies to her relationship with her own parents. It is aesthetically acute and emotionally wrought. These poems work well on their own but are even more transportive and affecting when read together. I breezed through this book in one sitting and the experience was moving and majestic with rich imagery and emotional themes rife for dissection. The writing is simple but highly effective in its riveting transparency and relatable anxieties.

[Skylar Miklus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jill Bialosky can do no wrong in my eyes. This collection explores desire's intersection with nature, through new motherhood and changing seasons. Bialosky displays a stunning mastery of the written word, imbuing her pieces with unexpected diction. The text is layered but never obscure; rather, it displays a courageous vulnerability.

[Vivienne Strauss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I read A History of a Suicide right before this, the poems had much more meaning to them.