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Fieldglass
Sexual identity, female friendship, and queer experiences of love
Fraught with obsession, addiction, and unrequited love, Catherine Pond’s Fieldglass immerses us in the speaker’s transition from childhood to adulthood. A queer coming-of-age, this collection is a candid exploration of sexual identity, family dynamics, and friendships that elude easy categorization, offering insight on the ambiguous nature of identity.
Saturated by her surroundings and permeated by the emotional lives of those close to her, the speaker struggles with feelings of displacement, trauma, and separateness. She is perpetually in transit, with long drives, flights, and train rides—moving most often between the city and the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. As the collection unfolds, the speaker journeys toward adulthood, risking intimacy and attempting to undo her embedded impulses toward silence and absorption.
Reflective, graceful, and understated, Pond’s images accumulate power through restraint and suggestion. Deeply personal and intense, searching and yearning, associative and lyric, Fieldglass is a confessional about growing up, loving hard, and letting go.
Fraught with obsession, addiction, and unrequited love, Catherine Pond’s Fieldglass immerses us in the speaker’s transition from childhood to adulthood. A queer coming-of-age, this collection is a candid exploration of sexual identity, family dynamics, and friendships that elude easy categorization, offering insight on the ambiguous nature of identity.
Saturated by her surroundings and permeated by the emotional lives of those close to her, the speaker struggles with feelings of displacement, trauma, and separateness. She is perpetually in transit, with long drives, flights, and train rides—moving most often between the city and the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. As the collection unfolds, the speaker journeys toward adulthood, risking intimacy and attempting to undo her embedded impulses toward silence and absorption.
Reflective, graceful, and understated, Pond’s images accumulate power through restraint and suggestion. Deeply personal and intense, searching and yearning, associative and lyric, Fieldglass is a confessional about growing up, loving hard, and letting go.
- GenresPoetry
90 pages, Paperback
First published March 19, 2021
2 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Pond
1 book8 followersCatherine Pond was born in New York City. She is the author of Fieldglass (Southern Illinois University Press 2021), winner of the Crab Orchard First Book Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 17, 2021
A brilliant debut. There is pain, suffering, trauma, and violence ( not only written about personally but witnessing in others as well) but also a stoic, unflappable resilience that bears witness to this suffering so that the hard-earned beauty, grace and understanding that peeks through these poems herald the mark of a fierce, strong artist.
Lines that are direct, “Have you ever walked through years of rooms/ of dark canvases/ wanting to die?/ “ establishes a particular maudlin feeling that pivots to “If I hadn’t spent those six seasons/ covered in snow/ I wouldn’t recognize the terrible/ burst of hope in a slash of pink paint—/ Georgia in the summer, the smell of hydrangea rotting in the sun. Sweet/ and punishing.” that surprises the reader by its redirection and its dexterity to then inform us that “Rothko said it was his brightest paintings/ that indicated deepest grief./“. (“Gallery”)
These poems, even the ones informed by confession, take a painful event that occurred and transmutes them into art and meaning by going beyond declarative statement and fiercely confronting and interrogating it so the poem is shaped by the author’s vision rather than the event silencing the author’s ability to overcome it. Although she writes, “... but when I loved you/ with all my will my will wasn’t enough/“ how can we not still try to admire this type of effort in not only life but also that tries to create art?
Lines that are direct, “Have you ever walked through years of rooms/ of dark canvases/ wanting to die?/ “ establishes a particular maudlin feeling that pivots to “If I hadn’t spent those six seasons/ covered in snow/ I wouldn’t recognize the terrible/ burst of hope in a slash of pink paint—/ Georgia in the summer, the smell of hydrangea rotting in the sun. Sweet/ and punishing.” that surprises the reader by its redirection and its dexterity to then inform us that “Rothko said it was his brightest paintings/ that indicated deepest grief./“. (“Gallery”)
These poems, even the ones informed by confession, take a painful event that occurred and transmutes them into art and meaning by going beyond declarative statement and fiercely confronting and interrogating it so the poem is shaped by the author’s vision rather than the event silencing the author’s ability to overcome it. Although she writes, “... but when I loved you/ with all my will my will wasn’t enough/“ how can we not still try to admire this type of effort in not only life but also that tries to create art?
March 6, 2022
"Like Rain" / "In the Duty-Free Shop"
August 7, 2021
Catherine Pond's Fieldglass is a book of poetry at once lush and reserved. There are icy lakes and dense forests. There are fraught relationships and austere museums. The blue beauty of this book will seep into you.
June 28, 2022
wow wow wow wow wow
I feel like I’m shitty at reviewing books but I’m a whole new level of shitty at reviewing poetry. all I can do at this point in my poetry journey is make a disorganized list of the things I enjoyed. maybe some day ill be able to do more but not today.
this is the first collection of poetry that's poems felt really interconnected to me. like I felt like there was a narrative here. the speaker felt consistent across the poems is what i'm trying to say.
the poems were also just very sharp and cold, very geographic and northern and lakey. maybe thats me allowing the cover to dominate my opinion of the poetry. but I dont think so. there's was something knife-life about the poetry in this book. something deeply disturbing and haunting. lots of the poems deal in geographies, mostly places in new york. but I feel like a drive through washington state would feel similar to how some of these poems felt to read.
it's interesting because I feel like I know things about catherine pond after reading this. to some extent that's always true after you read a writer's work. but I feel like I know specific things. which probably isn't true. but is definitely a testament to the writing. the poems in fieldglass felt close in their distance to me. like a woman that's so far from you but that winks at you and in that wink you can see the whole world or most of it. but you never hug her or know her name or anything like that. she's too far.
I feel like I’m shitty at reviewing books but I’m a whole new level of shitty at reviewing poetry. all I can do at this point in my poetry journey is make a disorganized list of the things I enjoyed. maybe some day ill be able to do more but not today.
this is the first collection of poetry that's poems felt really interconnected to me. like I felt like there was a narrative here. the speaker felt consistent across the poems is what i'm trying to say.
the poems were also just very sharp and cold, very geographic and northern and lakey. maybe thats me allowing the cover to dominate my opinion of the poetry. but I dont think so. there's was something knife-life about the poetry in this book. something deeply disturbing and haunting. lots of the poems deal in geographies, mostly places in new york. but I feel like a drive through washington state would feel similar to how some of these poems felt to read.
it's interesting because I feel like I know things about catherine pond after reading this. to some extent that's always true after you read a writer's work. but I feel like I know specific things. which probably isn't true. but is definitely a testament to the writing. the poems in fieldglass felt close in their distance to me. like a woman that's so far from you but that winks at you and in that wink you can see the whole world or most of it. but you never hug her or know her name or anything like that. she's too far.
September 4, 2021
Well, here it is, the first five star review I'm giving for a book of poetry, and arrives without the hint of question, as "Fieldglass" is amazing.
It layers yearning, tumult, abandon, and suffering of inflicted by and to youth into the fierce wisdom, and even joy, of having experiences processed not only into knowledge, but continued longing. Everywhere here is beauty and ugliness together, pleasure and pain together, a processing both refining and making more raw; distilled into expressive vitality.
The exact form of "Fieldglass"'s magic is startling. Upon a first reading, I immediately read it again to see how much was merely the element of surprise, the unexpected twist catching me in its juxtapositions. The answer is maybe a little but not much at all: it is not the initial experience that is unexpected, but the way the experience is always real.
This work is the rebuttal to every stoic; that the emotional content of one's life is not mastered but exemplified, taken for every drop with thirst.
It layers yearning, tumult, abandon, and suffering of inflicted by and to youth into the fierce wisdom, and even joy, of having experiences processed not only into knowledge, but continued longing. Everywhere here is beauty and ugliness together, pleasure and pain together, a processing both refining and making more raw; distilled into expressive vitality.
The exact form of "Fieldglass"'s magic is startling. Upon a first reading, I immediately read it again to see how much was merely the element of surprise, the unexpected twist catching me in its juxtapositions. The answer is maybe a little but not much at all: it is not the initial experience that is unexpected, but the way the experience is always real.
This work is the rebuttal to every stoic; that the emotional content of one's life is not mastered but exemplified, taken for every drop with thirst.
April 18, 2024
"If I love you the way I love myself,
I will be ruthless.
Rothko said ut was his brightest paintings
that indicated deepest grief."
"Fieldglass" is a haunting exploration of grief that resonates with a stunning, painful clarity. Through vivid imagery and evocative language, Pond captures the raw emotions of loss and longing. Each poem is meticulously crafted, with precise structure and pacing that enhance the emotional weight of the words. The collection cohesively navigates the landscapes of memory and loss, making poignant use of the titular "fieldglass" as a metaphor for viewing one’s fractured self and the spaces left by lost loved ones. This is a deeply affecting work, inviting readers to confront the beauty and devastation of grief.
It is one of those books that "it hurts to read, but it hurts so good because it's true".
I will be ruthless.
Rothko said ut was his brightest paintings
that indicated deepest grief."
"Fieldglass" is a haunting exploration of grief that resonates with a stunning, painful clarity. Through vivid imagery and evocative language, Pond captures the raw emotions of loss and longing. Each poem is meticulously crafted, with precise structure and pacing that enhance the emotional weight of the words. The collection cohesively navigates the landscapes of memory and loss, making poignant use of the titular "fieldglass" as a metaphor for viewing one’s fractured self and the spaces left by lost loved ones. This is a deeply affecting work, inviting readers to confront the beauty and devastation of grief.
It is one of those books that "it hurts to read, but it hurts so good because it's true".
May 16, 2021
It's increasingly rare that I fall into a collection of poems that meditates generally on life's themes, but this collection continued to draw me in, surprise me with its images, language. With each poem, it illustrated its ability to cut through me. One stanza I will think about for some time: "The truth is, I was always scared of men. / What destroyed me that night / had been destroying me all along."
December 24, 2021
While I empathize with Catherine Pond's reminiscence about growing up queer, this collection did not speak to me personally. There was an underlying sense of stangnancy, perhaps in the repetition of the couplet form.
August 21, 2021
This collection is stunning. I devoured each poem, sometimes immediately reading them a second time. A truly wonderful read.
August 26, 2021
A stunning debut collection from an exciting and visionary poet.
December 26, 2021
Catherine Pond writes with such a strong sense of place. "Forest Horse" took my breath away and broke me.
July 3, 2023
pond tackles everything from love to death to addiction, and the honest, simple language she uses to convey these complex ideas is breath-taking. my favs were sub-zero, arrival, and winter sister.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews