World Tree (Pitt Poetry Series) - Award-Winning Poetry Collection for Literature Lovers & Book Clubs | Perfect for Reading, Gifting & Literary Discussions

World Tree by David Wojahn (University of Pittsburgh Press 2011) Review by Maggie HirtDavid Wojahn's revitalizing, sometimes shocking, personal, and reflective poetry are best represented through his ekphrastic poems in this collection. He takes readers on a visual journey forcing us to remember events that we might, perhaps, want to forget.Broken up into four section, Part III contains the explicit ekphrastic poems, all which play with the form of a sonnet. From historic cave art to well-known current political photographs to personal, familial photography, Wojahn hauntingly brings images to life for readers to spiral into another existence. Readers can travel with a "torch," a "chalice," a "Kodak" camera, "spearpoints," or a "pipe." Not placed into a timeline, the poetry brings readers back and forth and back again ending with a portrait of his father in his military garb. Wojahn leaves a footprint on the mind that readers can carry with them while contemplating what visually crosses their path in history books, home photo albums, or the news.There are twenty-five ekphrastic poems that include a version of the art or photography in Part III, but there are also poems like "Self-Portrait of Rimbaud with Folded Arms: Abyssinia, 1883" that don't include the inspiring piece. Wojahn plays with traditional forms. For example, this poem is a version of a sonnet as well. The last two lines have a twist in the narrative; they appear to still discuss Rimbaud, but they actually speak to audiences about what it is like to be a poet. He tries to medicate poetic life or "cut it with a bone saw but the phantom pain goes on." He writes this poem to Rimbaud in sonnet form because Rimbaud was known as "an infant Shakespeare." Since most readers would not know this without further investigation, a reader should not stop reading after just one read. They should be intrigued to investigate and re-read.Wojahn has released eight books of poetry that are starkly American and appropriately deal with our social and political downfalls. He focuses on our mortality, our lack of morality, and, through his own connection to his parent's photos, our relationships with our families. He is not up-lifting, light-hearted, or fantastical. His poetry is realistic, eye-opening, and aggravates those with national pride. With lines of meter and free verse, he is not afraid to reveal what we are as Americans. There are some positive viewpoints, but mostly the poems contain negative connotations that divulge how most people are let down by the collective conscious that invisible, national lines corral.Concerning familial matters, notice how the couplets in "This is our boy, dog and cat and I am sticking my nose through the back of the chair. . ." reflects the slats the mother peers through. His ekphrastic cubist comment relates this family photograph to abstract art. The photo itself is also comparative to the invisible mothers of the Victorian Era, where mothers would cover themselves up in clothes or rugs to disappear from a child's photograph. Taking a feminist approach to this poem, a reader can see that Wojahn draws all focus to the half-hidden mother; and therefore, encourages viewers to see what is truly important, which is how the "Mother labored mightily to still" and has given the photo a "blotched alignment/ Of the stars and planets." A poet truly shows his appreciation to the feminine and to motherhood, if he compares women to the cosmos. Wojahn also compares his mother to "A handprint framed in ochre, quickened on a cave wall," which places this familial photo with cave drawings. This suggests that handprints were the most likely way to remember a loved one. Like ancient art, Wojahn helps readers appreciate the art within their own home. He helps readers remember that every moment, gesture, embrace, and glance should be recalled to memory like paint on a wall and a poem on a page.Politically, Wojahn attacks leaders, their actions, and the soldiers who are trained to follow them. In "Sabrina Herman. . .", which is an ekphrastic poem, her grotesque display of death is closely scrutinized and displayed for the world to see as she smiles at a corpse. In "Vice President Richard Cheney. . .", which is an ekphrastic poem, he is pokes fun of Cheney who sports a gas mask in a close-up. These two poems place Part III into the current political sphere and they are not heart-warming. Wojahn jabs at national pride with a "smile," a "thumbs up," "smite them," the description of a "post-human form," and a satiric suggestion to "swallow your thoughts," in which, I, as a reader and a poet, am all too anxious to agree.The cover of World Tree is Charles Darwin's first diagram of an evolutionary tree (1837) redesigned and presented by Ann Walston. This takes Wojahn's attitudes of the world, (historical, familial, and political) and prepares a reader for the evolution of self that will converge and build with his upon reading. A world of emotions and memories will grow, if a reader chooses to venture with this book. I highly suggest it.