Something Bright, Then Holes

by Maggie Nelson

Maggie Nelson's fourth collection of poems combines a wanderer's attention to landscape with a deeply personal exploration of desire, heartbreak, resilience, accident, and flux. Something Bright, Then Holes explores the problem of losing then recovering sight and insight -- of feeling lost, then found, then lost again. The book's three sections range widely, and include a long sequence of Niedecker-esque meditations written at the shore of a polluted urban canal, a harrowing long poem written at a friend's hospital bedside, and a series of unsparing, crystalline lyrics honoring the conjoined forces of love and sorrow. Whatever the style, the poems are linked by Nelson's singular poetic voice, as sly and exacting as it is raw. The collection is a testament to Nelson's steadfast commitment to chart the facts of feeling, whatever they are, and at whatever the cost.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT, Contemporary, Nonfiction, Literary Fiction, Grief

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Maggie Nelson is the author of nine books of poetry and prose, many of which have become cult classics defying categorization. Her nonfiction titles include the National Book Critics Circle Award winner and New York Times bestseller The Argonauts (Graywolf Press, 2015), The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (Norton, 2011; a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Bluets (Wave Books, 2009; named by Bookforum as one of the top 10 best books of the past 20 years), The Red Parts (Free Press, 2007; reissued by Graywolf, 2016), and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (U of Iowa Press, 2007). Her poetry titles include Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull, 2005; finalist for the PEN/ Martha Albrand Art of the Memoir). In 2016 she was awarded a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. She has also been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction, an NEA in Poetry, an Innovative Literature Fellowship from Creative Capital, and an Arts Writers Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation. She writes frequently on art, including recent catalogue essays on Carolee Schneemann and Matthew Barney. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and has taught literature, writing, art, criticism and theory at the New School, Pratt Institute, and Wesleyan University. For 12 years she taught in the School of Critical Studies at CalArts; in fall 2017 she will join the faculty of USC. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Lucy Dacus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like when she fails at resisting saying something.

[Edita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our talks somehow
settle my heart, you said. Me too.

Though how can it be, as
my heart has become so unsettled
by you. But I trust you

to take care of
yourself, and in a sense
that's all that matters. And

I, too, am finally learning
something similar,how
to protect the spirit's grandeur.

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 4 out of 5]

...You have no idea
what kind of light you'll let in
when you drop the bowl

In the first section of this collection, "The Canal Diaries," Maggie Nelson spends a season as an observer of the Gowanus Canal, a direly polluted waterway in Brooklyn. At the same time she begins a new romantic relationship that preoccupies her but seems to go poorly almost right from the start. The weaving together of these two themes is seamless and fascinating, and this sharply observed memoir-in-poems is unforgettable, vivid and summery and menacing.

Just the eternal present of a single body
being driven insane by pointless pain
In this dead air place
She still breathes

The second section, "The Hospital for Special Care," is about the aftermath of a paralyzing bicycle accident Maggie Nelson's friend goes through (the friend is Christina Crosby, an academic who wrote her own book, A Body, Undone, about the experience). This brief section conveys, painfully and effectively, what it's like to watch someone you love go through something like this. The language is matter-of-fact but the poems are inevitably nightmarish.

Everyone needs an ocean
Everyone needs to pray
at its mean, black lap

In the last section, "Something Bright, Then Holes," Maggie Nelson attempts to get over a failed relationship, although whether it's the same one from the first section is unclear. These poems were interesting but just didn't draw me in the way the first two parts did. Overall, though, I was impressed by much about this collection. I've read several prose works by Nelson but this was my first foray into her poetry, and I'm unsurprised to find it vivid, compelling, and unapologetic in its honesty.

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want Maggie Nelson's brain in my next life. It feels as if she has an unfair advantage.

[Sentimental Surrealist · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm kind of tempted to knock this down a star because it's more conventional than the startling Jane: A Murder, but that would involve denying Nelson is an excellent poet, and I just can't bring myself to it. Some of the thematic concerns and people she would later mention in the excellent Bluets crop up here, including her fascination with blue, a harrowing bit on her quadriplegic friend, and frank discussion of sexuality, but it does plenty enough to establish itself as a work separate from Bluets and not a rough draft. Loaded with vivid imagery ("two Rastas/have parked at the edge to play/loud music, but even they/can't compete with the wind," coming in from "Another Night Falls), a fascinating sort of tonal ambivalence ("I know I could read your poems/in the dark, but I am allowed only one/a day, and even that's too much" from "Evensong" offers a lot to pore over, yes indeed), and hard-hitting use of the occasional straightforward rhyme ("The water here runs thin and sweet with rust/I will fly toward you, if I must," from "Lonelyville") and strong rhythm, this makes me want even more to read her early collections Shiner and the Latest Winter, which have proved damned near impossible to find.

[naviya · Rating 2 out of 5]

- y i k e s
- this is my second nelson book (i read bluets earlier)
- her poetry is definitely not my style
- i wish her writing was more self-aware and less self-pitying
- most of them are so literal?? might be better off as essays
- also there are places in this book you realise that she is Very White
- in poetry class i was told to not write using the unnecessary 'you' and i know now why that's annoying bc it was there alot in the book

- the first part abt pollution etc was like how white women talk abt slums in india - full of details but no heart
- the second part seemed to exotisize her friend's pain and the gaze of that entire section seemed very...intrusive and fake generous/ sympathetic - this is not to say that the poet isnt a genuine person it is only to say that it didnt come thru in her writing

- i really wanted to read the argonauts but i dont think i will bc it seems like it would reek of white academia and things like "queering heteronormativity"
- to her credit though, these could be good essays and her short poems are not bad

>>if u have any arguments as to why i should read the argonauts besides it being a "well referenced work", i would like to know 👀

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

The barbed wire is lovely tonight
and the sparrows don't mind
its tangle. How many ways are there

to get saturated in another's mind?
I play my little movie of you
over again, trying to discover

any lost details. When I open my eyes
I see that rusty door across the canal
that leads from nowhere to nothing, just like

that Cuban prison, where the poet
stumbles out of the sump
and God is waiting with his freedom *

A gritty, visceral collection of unpretty poetry.

I was blown away by The Hospital for Special Care.

*That rusty door

[Ada · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,2

Per fi la seva poesia. I és tan crua i apassionada com la seva prosa. Llegint aquests poemes he establert una connexió emocional entre Maggie Nelson i Lydia Davis. El tema, aquest desig desenfrenat seguit de la desolació m'ha recordat a la novel·la de Davis The End of the Story. Visca la Maggie!

[Jimena · Rating 4 out of 5]

La autora se sumerge, con la extraordinaria belleza de quien posee el don de la palabra pero el tormento de la tristeza, en un auténtico viaje de angustias, anhelos y pasiones.

Something bright, then holes es un poemario que supo desarmarme, conmoverme y recordarme por qué consideré siempre a la poesía algo sagrado.

[Roisin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Grief shines a light / as well as a dark”

[Sally Shin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book of poems I borrowed from Joseph ❤️❤️

[Brumchkin Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Giving up? the man asks
when I close my book

Yes,"


I don't read poetry too often but this shit banged, read it twice over in full and went back to a lot of the poems through out before I officially decided I was "done" with it. I don't really know enough descriptor words regarding poetry but it was very very good.

It was split into three parts or "groupings" of poems
"The Canal Diaries" were my favorite
But "The Hospital for Special Care" is purely devastating to read so that's awesome too and "Something Bright and Then Holes" was also great! I like it

5 overly polluted man-made water structures outta 5

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"we share a brightness
It's called death
in life."

"Every morning the shadow of my hand haunts
this table, asking, Can I bleed
here, can I become free here...
...though I know the shadow will soon return
with new questions, like
Is this theater?

Maggie Nelson is a brilliant writer. Here non-fiction works are interesting, sometimes riveting (Jane: A Murder, and, a favorite of mine, The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning), her lyrical essays (Bluets, one of my all-time favorite works) or poetry (The Latest Winter as well as the one I am reviewing, Something Bright, Then Holes), memoir (The Argonauts, another favorite describing her relationship with Harry Dodge, who is fluidly gendered), she is always amazing.

Something Bright, Then Holes is a volume of poetry that is personal. In the first part, she describes her stay at the Gowanus Canal, a body of water infamous for its pollution. Nelson expresses both its horror finding sometimes unexpected moments of beauty or at least fascination. She also alludes to a failing love affair. This love, or another resembling it, becomes the focus of Part 3. Part 2 is her moving care for a friend paralyzed in a motorcycle accident.

The first two sections are particularly powerful, although all three have much to offer (the quotes I chose are from the third section but it was hard to choose what to share).

A strong entry into Nelson's body of work. My first Nelson book was Bluets, which remains my favorite but I've loved all her work and strongly recommend any of them.

[Sparrow .]

I just discovered this book at my parents’ house a week ago. My daughter is always telling me about Maggie Nelson, and I didn’t realize she and I were both published by Soft Skull Press, simultaneously. (My last Soft Skull book appeared the same year as this, 2007.) I dislike almost every living poet, but Maggie can actually write – has a gift for modulating sounds. For example:

He writes like a spider got hold of a pen, it’s that wild.
The lower rung of sky is washed in pink

but the magic that slapped me awake
has momentarily chosen to abate, my antennae

wilted, no shoulder missing my head.
YOU SUCK STAG BALLS it says

[I opened to that at random; it’s from a poem called “The Ides of July.” (Even the titles are lovely.)]

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 2007, Soft Skull Press re-issued this edition in 2018. Maggie Nelson revisits this collection and shares her thoughts with The Paris Review here:
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/14/an-interview-with-maggie-nelson/

This is the first of her poetry I've read and much like Nelson's prose, it powerfully blends desire, philosophy, and a tireless, probing curiosity/questioning. The quality of the writing seems pretty consistent throughout, but my reaction to the poems was rather uneven soaring from awe to indifference. Sometimes, just head scratching like when you're aware you're in the presence of someone much smarter than you and you know they're doing something you don't fully grasp.

While reading, discrete passages and turns of phrase will splinter off into your cerebral cortex .

Excerpt from "The Red River"
This is my life now
Utterly jagged by magic

Insert lyricism later

[♡ Dakota ♡ (Sarcasm is my middle name)]

DNF. No Rating.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been 3 years since I last read Bluets (which I have reread several times over the years). She's still my go-to when I want something heartbreaking but comforting. Thank you so much, Maggie Nelson. Thank you for making me feel less lonely tonight.

July 3, 2021. 10:20 pm. Bedroom. Parched mouth. Trying to nurse The Big Sad. Dresser handles look like creepy smiling mouths from where I'm typing this review. Don't really feel like checking any messages. Absolutely hate this feeling. Is it possible grow extra legs to run away from a feeling.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I was. Now it’s a new day, full of promises
I can’t keep, or am choosing to be unable.”

Oh, I’m only as stubborn as Maggie Nelson is!

[Jeffrey Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review in The Brooklyn Rail:

Grit and solitude, a poet’s best friends, are front and center in Maggie Nelson’s fourth book. Known for her genre-bending tale based on a personal experience, Jane, A Murder, this collection is pure verse.

Of the three sections, the main one is about hanging around the toxic Gowanus Canal. Loss and redemption are central themes and the poet finds company in the company of the lonely. A “birder,” a “man in black,” strangers and rain attest to the somber mood. Though a significant other is referred to, the poet always seems to be leaving or addressing this person in abstentia. “I get so happy when I think you exist.”

These poems fight for their meanings. Written mostly in spare, heartfelt couplets, they are also caustic—a hot iron on a wound—searing but healing. “There is a truth that/ I’m going for, but I can only sketch// its contours. God knows/ I am still waiting for an answer.”

In the final soaring epiphany “Afterword (or, The Bridge,)” the author finds the freedom she has been “trying to wear… like an amulet.” Repeating the word “because,” the rhythms build until they find a powerful conclusion. “Because I want you to be happy, with or without me…. Because I walked across the bridge and was free.”

[Ava Cairns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wavered between 3 and 4 stars.
I chose 4 because I'm lying in bed with a mild case of covid right now, and this small collection of poems by the wonderful Maggie Nelson was escapism.
If you read this book, let me know which "chapter" was your favorite. Mine was, without a doubt, The Hospital For Special Care.
Nelson writes from the heart, and each note is executed beautifully. I only wish that she held some of her notes a little longer.
Beautiful, painful, raw, admirable poetry.
I look forward to reading more of Maggie Nelson in the future.
Thank you, Maggie Nelson :)
💌💌

[Yoel Isaac Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed very much reading this book, especially the poems in The Canal Diaries and Something bright, then holes sections. I took my time reading them, savouring most of them. I liked the exploration into loss, emotions, the highs and lows of relationships, about the peaceful ones and the toxic ones that traps us despite our awareness, the efforts to make it work, the raw desire. I like honesty and sincerity and in these poems I got plenty of that

"there ought to be a law
against this loneliness,
the kind you brought

without meaning it."

"maybe living with you doesn't have to be so hard
(not a new thought)

If I could uproot the weed in me
the weed that grows and grows
so rank and garrulous, so greedy
for the sun, its supremacy"

"...Inside I was pink with ants, very happy
ants. You felt it. I was glad.

I revisited my despair and found myself
used to it..."

"It may end today
Or every time you think it's over

there'll be something more brutal
left to say..."

"The barbed wire is lovely tonight
and the sparrows don't mind
its tangle...
.. When I open my eyes
I see that rusty door across the canal
that leads from nowhere to nothing..."

"... Thus begins
the slow slide back

to my life, back
to the plans I drew

before the summer
became the summer

of wanting you"

I'm leaving this book out of the shelf, I want to go back to it and randomly reread its poems. That to me is a sign of good poetry.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps actually 4.5
A stronger collection than her first two (which I only recently read, is why I bring it up) -- this is the MAGGIE NELSON I know from her later work. I particularly liked the Canal sequence, and the final poem is to die for.

[Laura Mustard · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Is it action that waits in the wings of emotion, or is this feeling all that will remain?"

This poetry collection shared a lot of similarities with Bluets, and once again I was brought to tears. Every time I read Maggie Nelson’s writing I am at least somewhat convinced we share a heart. It must be something about how interconnected longing and grief are in her work. Incredibly vulnerable and heartbreakingly beautiful.

[Talia]

will love Maggie Nelson forever and forever but something about this didn’t click for me, which I can only conclude is my own fault and not hers 😌

[armghan ahmad · Rating 5 out of 5]

my heart implodes. maggie nelson always does that.

[annika · Rating 4 out of 5]

first and second sections were awesome third was lacking something but i don’t write poetry so i can’t really say what

[andreea. · Rating 3 out of 5]

.

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

El título resume la poética y el universo habitado por su autora. Maggie Nelson en Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull, 2007) construye esos espacios de brillo acompañados de ausencias, de pérdida. La voz poética nos relata su vida en Brooklyn, la llegada y salida del amor, la textura del dolor. El libro se divide en tres partes, en la primera “The Canal Diaries” observamos la vida y el desazón de alguien que diariamente pasea en el Canal Gowanus en Brooklyn; el decaimiento del canal es, también, su decaimiento: “A sad dusk here, the water/ swollen with debris.” “The Hospital for Special Care” es la segunda sección y en ella encontramos a un interlocutor, una amiga confinada al hospital después de varias cirugías y tratamientos: “You are truly/ a cyborg now, the metal of your jaw linking up/with the metal of your cheekbones, behind the scenes.” Nelson como testigo del dolor ajeno, del dolor real: ese del cuerpo. La tercera parte “Something bright, then holes” viene a retomar los hilos de la primer sección, poemas cortos que nos hablan del rompimiento de una relación amorosa y sus consecuencias.

En este poemario, Maggie Nelson pareciera preguntarse: ¿Cómo hablar de lo que ya no está?

[kari trail · Rating 5 out of 5]

a lovely reread!

“maybe in eleven rooms you’ll find some sort of home, or base / it’s like there’s this enormous surplus of feelings and/or words / and we prick at the tarp, letting little pinwheels of light come in / but never really touching the source.”

(nov 2025)


wow this book made my heart swell. emotional, tragic, tender. i so adore the way she weaves love/angst/yearning/sexuality/desire into these landscapes—like emotion lives in a river canal, or the gold leaves outside a hospital, or the grass sleeping outside. it’s kind of gorgeous.

a few favorite lines out of order:

“the barbed wire is lovely tonight and the sparrows don’t mind its tangle”
“i will fly toward you, if i must”
“these days the world seems to split up into those who need to dredge and those who shrug their shoulders and say, it’s just something that happened”
“i am missing you in the way that spreads”
“everyone needs an ocean / everyone needs to pray at its mean, black lap”
“i will live forever / in this hexagon of non-understanding / nailed to it, its redness”
“as if desire can never be closed down or tortured out, as if fuck will always bubble out of a metal forest”
“if it hurts so bad, why not just dull it with a sharp object?”

(oct 2023)

[Mobina · Rating 4 out of 5]

a halo over the hospital absolutely destroyed me. i don’t think i ever cried this much reading a poem...

“When you sleep I make sure
you stay breathing, make sure I’m there
when you open your eyes, as you’re slightly stricken
upon remembering the prison your body has become. I’m frightened, you say
Then I’m sad, so sad to be paralyzed, and I’m sad too
You can’t wipe away your tears because your hands
don’t move, and I can’t wipe them away either
because it’s too abrupt a motion, everything now
needs to happen very slowly”