Anthesis

This work of poetry reclaims both a childhood trauma and a fictionalized telling of that experience. Retrospectively gleaning bits from an autobiographical novel published early in her career, Sue Goyette’s process of “inverted redaction” extracts emotive words and images and gathers them into a new and freer account. Paired with her mythopoetic use of language, this technique of clipping and rearranging previously composed words escapes the confines of conventional narrative, embracing poetry’s adeptness at preserving expansive truths in the careful ordering of small particulars.