Objects in Mirror

by N.W. Downs

to be a son is to hold the gun. the bullet's in your name but you never knew where to point it, we're halfway / through kansas and i'm making some suggestions.

Hemmed in by highways going nowhere and the men who disappear down them, Objects in Mirror builds an American body out of country music and familial grief. In these poems the dog dies, then dies again, the car un-crashes itself, and familiar radio noises lure brothers away from one another and into the restless west.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

Published November 8, 2024

Reviews

[Márcio · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is not always easy to write about poetry. All I can say is that these are beautifully crafted poems of life in the process of becoming.

[Brian Duggan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good, I loved the imagery and rhythm of these poems. Bold and powerful!

[Kerry]

N.W. Downs’ Objects in Mirror is a collection of 38 poems inspired by country music and the American road. It starts off with Coyote, with a glimpse of death, and goes on to explore themes of family, separation, guilt, kindness, and longing. “Lately it’s all hollering and heartache,” the author contends. As in country songs, lost things are metaphors, and they are real. The dog dies, but it is a symbol of a time when the speaker was gentler. A couple tries to eat through a menu, with new flavors and strange stains. The book is filled with odd capitalization and dialect, and the author ironically postulates, “see, nobody writes poems anymore because we’re too busy fixing the cars” and wonders, with odd grammatics, “am i a man or an american first? each has half of me in its stomach and is still so hungry. neither has kept its promises…” This even delves into the chaotic loneliness of 2020. Querencia Press published this, with an anticipated release date of Friday, 8 November, 2024.

[lyra button · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC Provided by Net Galley and Querencia Press
3.5
A collection which is so palpably American. The rumours of Witman, Ginsberg, and Siken are felt here. At its the best the collection calls forth nostalgia as easily as it was a loyal dog. At its best it operates on a genuinely profound and innovative imagery that feels truely refreshing to read, the last poem of the collection managed to harness these two strengths in a way that shows promise and confidence rarely seen in early collections. The confidence of Downs extends to a very intentional awarenss of length and brevity. It's admirable to see a poet who says what they need to say and walks away to let us do the extent of the feeling. Although I did find some stylistic choices to be without obvious justification and though there were poems with innovative imagery broadly the collection tends towards the conventional. However, this shows clear promise and I anticipate the future works..

[Gabriel Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC given by NetGalley for Honest Review

A tender and biting look at grief, family trauma, gender, and masculinity. Downs' poetry shines in it's simplicity and minor form break, using well crafted language to tell a story of trans survival and generational trauma. The nods to Massachusetts are welcome, as I'm also a native, and the peppered subtleties of masculinity metaphors make this collection feel full and inviting.

My favorite poems are: "Close As I Could Get to Jacksonville, Florida", "Radio Noises", "Two Nations are in Thy Womb", and "Crossing The Mississippi."

A staple for LGBTQIA+ poetry collections for sure.

[Emi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Publishing date: 08.11.2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Querencia Press for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

This was fine. I didn't really feel any specific way about it. I think I wasn't the intended audience.
This collection is very American and explores multiple themes. Gender, grief, family, growing apart, trauma, and masculinity.

I found the poems to be very abstract and "grey". It felt so dour. Some stylistic choices felt out of place or even distracting. The author clearly has a very specific mood and style in mind, I am just not sure if that is really my cup of tea.

Final ranking and star rating?
2 stars, D tier. Not really for me.

[Alesa Bernat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Objects in Mirror reads as one seamless collection that stretches time and space, marked by roadways, cities, and familial ties in the presence of grief. The poems pack and unpack events, revisiting them with different layers. As you read you seem to be moving westward with the narrator, but each poem feels like another brick building a house and life in the past back East. I had a hard time connecting with some poems the first time around, but the layers in each one are subtle and read differently on a second pass through the entire collection. As a whole it is very cohesive. It left me wanting more bricks in the end. It is a solid 4 to 4.5 star read.
*Thank you to Querencia Press for the digital ARC.