The Court of No Record: Poems

by Jenny Molberg

Jenny Molberg’s third collection of poetry, The Court of No Record , serves as both evidence and testimony against a legal system that often fails victims of physical trauma and domestic abuse. Drawing inspiration from true crime investigations and artifacts, including Frances Glessner Lee’s crime scene dioramas and the tragic aftermaths of two serial killers who preyed upon women in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Molberg probes a cultural obsession with violence that performs active erasure of victims’ lives. By engaging with historical texts through a personal lens, she sheds light on survivors who do not find justice and looks toward a future of positive systemic reformation.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Published February 22, 2023

Reviews

[Maggie Warren]

This is a stunning collection expertly organized and engrossing with its vivid imagery and sharp language. I felt pushed forward moment by moment yet compelled to linger with each word. The overarching narrative the sections develop is so important and necessary to hear, and I feel empowered reading these words.

[K.K. Fox]

"I thought I lived there. / The system is turning me to sand."

"We know why she lies. We lied for him too."

"I believed I knew what she meant but I've / never been brave"

"Ann, I am sorry. There is no way / to elegize a person you don't know."

"I want love & not fear but these are the same."

"My / clients have traveled far. They are weary. You will not hear them."

"Pardon me, but some abusers / can be very sad."

"I am troubled by your truth-telling. How loud it is."

"I appear to be in a constant state of shock, / gasping into my own hand, and actually, I am in a constant state / of shock."

"Maybe if she / thought hard enough, he could love her."

"I buzz. Or I am a bag / of water and something / called thought."

"Jennifer needed me to know she existed."

"I am a hopeful person, even in past tense."

"You're just like everyone / else in this world The worst thing to be -- / no one and anyone / in a world full of someones like him"

"May every sad women see herself in a mirror. / May she see, may she believe what she sees."

"I know, you're angry. You also took me to be yours."

[Hannah Warren]

#sealeychallenge day 6: The Court of No Record by Jenny Molberg arrived in the mail yesterday and catapulted to the top of my list. Jenny is an incredible poet, aspirational in her work’s rendering honesty. today, I spent hours repotting and regrounding in the Alabama heat, and these poems provided a stunning backdrop to my daily patterns.

[Suz]

All I can say is that Dr. Molberg did a wonderful job with this collection of poems. Was very insightful and empowering. I feel like this book helps see how any type of abuse can affect a women. This book left me in tears.

[Karren]

I like the way this book layout. it presents evidence, testimony, and investigation. It is what a woman has to do to defend against a rigged court of laws that favors men over women. Lots of mystery in this.

[Melissa Johnson]

This book is beautiful and hard. It's funnier than you might expect given the subject matter, and that humor is such an important aspect of all this, in a "laugh so you don't cry" kind of way. I just really love this book.

[Sarah]

"A man I know wrote a book about a girl who took her own life. He morphed himself into her, as if that could ever be possible, which of course is an act of violence."

There's some really good food for thought in this collection. Especially about the violence women have to deal with.

[Jordan Hamel]

Jaw dropping collection of poetry right here

[Ella Hitchman]

This is the greatest collection of poetry I’ve ever read.

[Jenna Goldsmith]

This is a must-read for anybody interested in the intersections of poetry and law.

[Julia]

“There is no one at the pool, but you don't have to prove a ghost story, that's the point.”

[Maryfrances]

Jenny Molberg’s poetry always takes my breath away both in how honest and direct she is as well as how finely she crafts a poem. She does what few have the courage to do. Jenny Molberg’s third book is yet another spectacular book of poems, these dealing with how inadequate our court system is when everything comes down to “yes” or “no” instead of the victim ever getting to explain since few things are “yes” or “no.” Yet, how can anyone ever get justice for physical, emotional, and psychic abuse. These are scars we carry, and these poems become a voice for all women who have suffered domestic damage. The book is more like a documentary of a woman’s journey through the court system and how that system violates or ignores rather than vindicates victims. Maybe the court system didn’t let her tell her story, but these poems do. These are courageous poems that speak for all women in the hands of a master of language.

[Beans]

Dope.