Familiar History

<p>In the words of the always-incisive Corrinne Cleggs Hales <em>Familiar History</em> “expertly de-romanticizes the landscape and mythology of the American west revealing a world defined largely by struggle and failure and broken lives.” The poems in these pages take an unflinching look at rural life in the Desert Southwest and reveal a world composed of harshly beautiful scenery as reflected in the poem "Burning Wishes":</p><p> </p><p><em>Someone said they never saw a wild thing </em></p><p><em>sorry for itself. Me neither but it seemed sometimes </em></p><p><em>like they ought to be. The bark beetles that crunch </em></p><p><em>in and out of their white fir tunnels</em></p><p><em>and branch outward until each thorax leg </em></p><p><em>and instinct intersects becoming a web </em></p><p><em>meaning nothing.</em></p><p> </p><p><em>A cold snap couples indeterminately with wind velocity </em></p><p><em>and the fracture lines of ice particles killing only incidentally.</em></p><p> </p><p>The message is clear: in the universe of these poems nature doesn't care about you or the meaning you give it.</p><p> </p><p>The book also reveals the child abuse violence racism and poverty endemic to much of this region through the eyes of someone who spent nearly 30 years there. In the title poem the narrator speaks directly to this relationship between the memories carried in human bodies and those held by the landscapes they inhabit:</p><p><br /><em>I will learn to seal everything up inside.</em></p><p><em>We all will. In 1969 the desert will swallow</em></p><p><em>an atom bomb whole. In 1969 </em></p><p><em>my grandmother's pancreas will swallow </em></p><p><em>too much of the awful light from a safe distance </em></p><p><em>inside a bus. After awhile you begin </em></p><p><em>to realize light in the desert can penetrate </em></p><p><em>anything. A 1951 description </em></p><p><em>of the Nevada Test Site included in an Army brochure </em></p><p><em>for the Camp Desert Rock soldiers </em></p><p><em>tells them that the desert is a damned good place </em></p><p><em>for disposing of used razor blades. </em></p><p><em>It is.</em></p><p> </p><p><em>Familiar History</em> is equal parts a lyrical reflection on the relationship between humanity and the natural environment and a deeply personal revelation of the secrets of a family of malcontents. The narrator's story is the story of rural America: a bitter tonic of regret euphoria and the search for salvation.</p>