Contradictions in the Design

by Matthew Olzmann

"Matthew Olzmann's poetry is that rare thing that embraces complication while, at every turn, filling us with wonder. Contradictions in the Design incorporates 'patterns among celestial bodies, the mysteries of Christ, X + Y, crossword puzzles, free will,' but also the playfulness and oddities of life that allow us to laugh hardest at ourselves. Desire, Supervillains, Moby, and 'the idea of Moby': prepare yourself to be dazzled."—C. Dale Young These political poems employ humor to challenge the cultural norms of American society, focusing primarily on racism, social injustices and inequality. Simultaneously, the poems take on a deeper, personal level as it carefully deconstructs identity and the human experience, piecing them together with unflinching logic and wit. Olzmann takes readers on a surreal exploration of discovery and self-evaluation. "Elegy Where Small Towns Are Obscured By Mountains": …There are all kinds of stories eaten by history and silence
and neglect. Above a door, something stirs
the chimes, and reminds someone inside
that where there is a song, however faint. A man hears it, and passes
through a screen door into a night of fireflies.
He looks around as if called by a voice.
The wind has passed. The chimes are quiet.
Matthew Olzmann 's first book of poems, Mezzanines , received the 2011 Kundiman Prize and was published by Alice James Books. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in New England Review , Kenyon Review , Poetry Northwest , the Southern Review , Forklift , Ohio , and elsewhere. Currently, he is a visiting professor of Creative Writing in the undergraduate writing program at Warren Wilson College and co-editor of the Collagist .

Genres: Poetry

100 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2016

Reviews

[Martin Ott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how to review this without coming off as a fanboy but I believe that Matthew Olzmann has come out of the gate with the best first two books of poetry in recent memory. There is no sophomore slump in Contradictions in the Design. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

[Sleepless Dreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely book of poetry. Full review to come but for now, for the last time:

Korea Adventures
- I'm so grateful. I wish I could go back in time to myself, in November 2021, hesitating between Milan and Seoul and say, "you're making the right choice, don't worry". I wish I could reach out and thank every single person who was part of this.

- What it felt like to get off at Gongdeok station for the last time cannot be placed in words. This time was so meaningful, so precious. I know, it's just an exchange and I hope my future self is doing even more exciting things but for me, right now, this feels like a big thing, to move alone to Korea, to make it home.

- I passed all of my courses! It is unsurprising that my grades for my pitches were very high for storytelling and delivery and lower for business content like whoops, I'm still an actor, still a storyteller, never a businessman. 

- Religion has been a constant theme in Korea for me. I didn't expect that but it has made me feel so serene and comforted

- I met my favorite TikToker from Korea at Pride and he gave me a temporary tattoo. i didn't mention his tiktoks until after we chatted for a while and it was remarkable how quickly his demeanor changed- his friendliness disappeared. I do not wish to pity famous people but his "i'm shy" will stay with me, what does it mean to carry a public presence, to forever be seen as the guy who explains domestic Korean law

- My temple stay program was remarkable. I want to remember how a space can feel different through intentions and change. I stood there for long minutes, staring into the mountains, allowing myself to pause everything. The Singaporean friends, the monks, the feeling that the world no longer existed.

- There was apparently a booth for Palestine in the Pride parade yet I couldn't find it, despite going to all the booths (and yes, I showed up very early and went to all the booths while they were fairly empty, actually had the chance to have conversations). 

- In my last week, I suddenly stumbled upon people that should have been my friends from the start. It is infuriating, feels like fate is making fun of me. Finding them, the people who respond to my enthusiasm, who adore chatting about foreign policy, who are queer

- The Korea that I experienced is not real. My Korea is slow paced, always enough room to sit on the Metro, to lounge in a park. The real Korea involved long work hours, rush hours, intense stress. I need to remember this.

- So much free queer merch at Pride. I have enough stickers to queerify everything I own for months

- I did improv for the first time in years and I.... I think that I outgrew it.

- These are not my details to share but a friend needed me and I was able to be there. To give her what she needed, someone to say that they understand, that they don't judge, that they get it. 

- And I spoke about that disgusting little man. I didn't expect my eyes to fill with tears, to tremble so much. I thought I could push through but no, thinking about it still hurts 

- She said, "you're not your past, you don't need to define yourself as a victim of sexual assault if you don't want to" and I hadn't realized how freeing this felt, I refusing to let his hands turn me into someone else.

- I don't know which friendships will stay but I'm letting go. I will remember that friendship is not always determined by time. A person who was very meaningful for two weeks will always have a place in the tapestry of my life

- Getting a tattoo that was so different from my first one. My first tattoo was done by an experienced older artist. I told him where I wanted the tattoo vaguely and he placed the stencil right there. We were done in twenty minutes, took one picture that looked great, did the line art without hesitation and moved on. This tattoo? My artist asked me to place my own stencil and as I said that i don't know how to make it right, they made suggestions, never doing it themselves. It took four hours for a tattoo the size of my first tattoo, they were so meticulous in making the line art, going over what seemed too weak, consulting with me about the amount of ink, taking dozens of pictures and videos. Rather than silence, we chatted, small talk quickly turned into deep discussions of identity and family, of third culture kids and queerness. So grateful to how it turned out

- My meditation teacher going, "you don't study Buddhism and it shows, you can only go so far without getting an education, it will deepen your practice" and me just immediately feeling regret that I don't have more time

- But it's the right time to leave Korea. I don't know what waits in Israel but I do know that I would grow to resent Korea if I would stay for much longer. I'm ready to move on and especially, to pet my cats

[Milton Brasher-Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't remember what link I saw that led me to this lovely book, but I wish I did so I could go back and say thank you. These are poems that are profound and available at the same time. The poet offers images that are complex, yet he doesn't settle for being obtuse; instead, he reaches for resonance--and gets there. I will borrow a few of his words to make my point, from a poem called, "The Millihelen."

In the story that launches a thousand ships, beauty
is a destination, something to crash toward.
In the story that launches one, there is no destination.
Beauty was there, among the wharves, with her
simple scarves at the beginning.
A sailor and his joy stepped from the pier and into
the fragile boat together. Why was there only one?
Because you, dear, said to the night, I don't care
about the rest. And I said, Neither do I.
And then the harbor was behind us.

Read these poems. You're welcome.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overly opaque poetry frustrates me. So many verses are fractured and frustrating puzzles that require a rubric and doctorate degree to decode.

Olzmann is astonishing in his clarity without sacrificing poignance or lyricality. You never waste time wondering what "The Millihelen" or "Imaginary Shotguns" are about. You get straight to getting -- and, thus, appreciating -- his poems. If anything, Olzmann stands out because he doesn't rely on obfuscation to sound profound. Instead, the profundity comes from his tender analysis of news items, unseen neighbors, and Caravaggio paintings.

My favorite of the batch are "Creation Myths" and "Nate Brown Is Looking for a Moose."

[Sophie Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to poets and poetry novices alike. Olzmann is just the right amounts of funny, insightful, humble and revolutionary. His work is full of small miracles and a joy to read.

[Evan]

"You can't keep / time from crumbling, or everyone alive just by / holding your breath. You can't stop sleep // from covering the faces of your friends. Cheap / motels, blood in the sink, nail clippings and hair dye— / you can't hold it all. You can't keep // the continents from shifting, or the deep / wells of memory from going dry. / Hold your breath. You can't stop sleep // from erasing another day. The cold sweep / of moonlight. Photographs. Your lover's thigh. / You can't hold it all. You can't keep / your hair from the drainpipe, or the beep / of the alarm clock from telling another lie."

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really glad i found Matthew Olzmann's poetry. Both collections that i've read have been enjoyable and enlightening. Beautiful and true. Not many things like that in the world.



The following is part of my 2020 Pandemic Project: using poets' repetitions to make repoesy. All words/phrases are taken from this collection. And it's not really worth sharing, but i'm forcing myself to be consistent: if the collection supplies enough repetitions to create something, then i post it here.

Moby (Gary),
I mean you there.
Pointing and naming happens.
And it will end from the next thoughts.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
if you'd like to make your own...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
thoughts
it will end
Gary
Moby
from the next
happens and
you
i mean
there
pointing and naming

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Father, who art in
heaven and also
the centipede grass and the creek
and the engine that warbles
roadside: thank you
for the black
silhouette of mountains,
deep black
against the regular black
of the night. Thank you
for the field between me
and them
even though I can't see it.
And thanks for the ability to imagine
what can't be seen.
I imagine you
just as these lowing cows
must have faith in the field
as they glide across it
seeing nothing out here
but the outlines of each other,
my headlights,
an obliterated barn in the distance.

—Mattew Olzmann, "Prayer Near a Farm by Black Mountain, North Carolina: 11:36 PM, Early May"

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Prayer For An Unremarkable Day” was perfect.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable collection of poems from an author that is new to me. I love the way he goes down a road and then takes a strong right or left turn. I highly recommend the book to poetry readers.

[Matthew Pitman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title Contradictions in the Design opens a certain image, one of a distinctly religious, yet questioning tone. One rooted in the church, even if expressing doubt and sometimes, dismay. One will be surprised then to find themselves not in a pew in Olzmann’s book, but rather, deep within the art gallery, browsing a collection of fossils, or even amongst the statues outside.
And yet Olzmann does not shy away from this topic his title so excellently evokes, more so he uses the museum he creates to open a world of possibilities, creating new avenues to explore and engage with his struggles. “The child has taken that apart as well. / Piece by ancient piece. Bone, hair, hinges. / Father Time, like an antique watch. / Little screws missing. Revelations everywhere”.

As Olzmann peruses these artifacts, he imagines the ancients as things not so different from ourselves. Writings on mastodon skulls as eviction notices (or other poetry). Adam struggling with naming every species, and eventually falling prey to a snake in the grass— as Olzmann warns us he so often does. The man who slayed Medusa, glad to feel his body move beneath him. The Creator as a moose moving through the darkness, or a man behind a carpentry table, “Drafting and erasing and already: so tired, so frazzled, / confused. The tools he used, scattered about his desk. / The ripsaw, the bucksaw, the hacksaw, and the lathe.”

And yet, he finds himself reflected just as well amongst these relics. “There is the object beneath the glass / and there is the world seen / by the subject looking out from that glass.” And Olzmann is never far from examination. He is never afraid to show us his innermost turmoil, whether it be with our country (racism, violence, abject poverty), the world at large (death, disaster, doubt), or even himself, “But I slam a door when I mean / to say I love you. / I back my car into another / when I’m trying to move forward”.

Contradictions in the Design is ultimately a book about finding beauty- or rather, trying to- within this horrible, often disturbing world we live in. About the yearning for love, the terribleness of death, the inevitability of “nothingness”, and the strange sense of beauty that flows through it all. “Things end. But what he can’t comprehend / is how, around those endings, everything else / continues.”

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Olzmann’s second book, of three so far, and I think it’s the saddest of the them all. There are several poems referencing a friend’s suicide and funeral attendance, as well as additional pieces about violence in the world. Olzmann is definitely one of my two or three favorite poets writing these days, and this book doesn’t lower his stock in my book. This is just a more somber, and less humorous book than the ones around it.

Millihelen is probably my favorite of the bunch, in the proud tradition of Love Poem Disguised as a Mountain Dew Commercial. Someone cool should have one (or both) of those read in their wedding. I also really like The Man who was Mistaken, the Keats poem, and Still Life with Heart Extracted. The closer, about statues around Medusa, is a hopeful note even in the face of tremendous odds. As is the penultimate poem, set on a dark night in the shadows outside of Black Mountain, NC. The man’s not giving up. No way.

Olzmann knows how to find the beautiful, and the absurd, that surrounds us in so many ways. I know that several books published by Alice James is pretty special, but someone please get this man a big award!

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this collection 4.5 stars.

Matthew Olzmann does an incredible job of writing poems that grip me emotionally while keeping a very intelligent perspective on the topic at hand. I enjoyed the format of his poems - they are organized, but not so rigid in structure to shy away from expression. I found myself relating to much of the content of his imagination: how to utilize doubt, the pain of losing someone, the wonders of the creation of the universe, and so much more.

I will be looking for more poetry by Olzmann and I will be looking forward to reading it. I would recommend this to poetry lovers, deep thinkers, artistic folk, or any combination of these.

[Jolene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I put this collection on hold at the library immediately after reading Constellation Route, and I think I may have enjoyed this one even more. My instinct, without actually looking back at Constellation Route is that this collection doesn't have as much of the corniness as that one -- though we still get some and, hey, I'm not NOT here for it.

Also, in both (the letters/post office stuff in Constellation Route and museum exhibits/art here), Olzmann does a good job threading the needle between theme and gimmick.

Some favorites:

From "The Gallery of Every Living Thing" (75)
Who wouldn't long for some kind of release?
Who wouldn't scan the landscape for an exit route,
as he, without sleep, kept pointing and naming,
pointing and naming, each time hoping
that this was the last one?
But there is no end, he discovered.
Not even when he named the trails of ants
that latticed themselves over and under
the iron fence posts, or the worm
in the fruit, or the thing that crawled toward him,
on its belly, anonymous and kind.

From "The Raising of Lazarus" (47)
In fact, if Caravaggio hadn't titled this The Raising
of Lazarus, I'd have no reason to think I was witness
to the impossible. Yet here I am, like those painted
into the crowd, watching the body for a flicker of life.
The flare of a lung. A tremble in the lips.
Here's the power of saying something, of suggestion,
where the suggestion -- in this case, the painting's title--
makes the audience strain to see
what they're supposed to see: resurrection.

From "The Skull of an Unidentified Dinosaur" (21)
I imagine the man who wired these
dinosaur bones must have imagined
his vision was real, must have pictured
it alive. Covered in flesh, the imagined life
can also be terrifying -- able to cleave you
open with the swipe of a claw
or devour you in seconds.
But as it is now, having never existed
after tricking you into believing,
it eats at you more slowly, let's you feel
every new rip in your gut, makes you beg

Also, "Astronomer's Locate a New Planet" (41) and "Contradiction in the Design" (28). You kind of have to read those two in their entirety.

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the duality of the poems and the humor Olzmann uses to soften the message. I enjoyed that he takes something we take for granted and turns it into something with purpose, while not telling us what we are supposed to get out of these poems. He writes the poem and lets it speak for itself. That takes skill, and I found this an entertaining read.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I don’t know how matter forms.

Or how love exists. I don’t know why creation
happens, and happens, and sometimes does not.
But I know this: at some point there was nothing.
Then suddenly, in the middle of all that nothing,
according to some stories at least,
there was, unexplainably, something."

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection, like his debut collection, is an absolute delight. Narrative, comical, heartbreaking, gripping, scientific, magical, autobiographical, lovesick, and sorrowful. Other words can be also be used to describe this collection, but I'll let you discover those words on your own.

[Laura Weldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deceivingly simple, yet these poems are masterful. Each one is worth savoring. I know I must buy a book when I cannot bear to return it to the library. Matthew Olzmann's book is a must-buy. I'm eager to read everything he writes.

[silas denver melvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

first poetry collection to make me interested enough to google "race horse autopsy"

[Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always find funny poems I enjoy from him. I like his humor.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an easy poetic voice/ smoothness…unique ideas and a pulse of ‘now’.

[Emma Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

he can stick the landing of a poem like no other

[Kane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff again from him, ill have to read all his books

[Dajana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️. Really loved some, felt meh about others.

[caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

best poems i've ingested in a long time my heart is broken my head is in my hands my blood is rushing my bones are lighter etc etc etc