Review by Jami Macarty
In earthwork, Jill Khoury’s second poetry collection, a sight-impaired daughter navigates her complex relationship with her chronically ill mother. Following the mother’s death, the daughter confronts the lasting impact of having a critical, impatient, and judgmental mother while also tending her “holy ardor” and grief.
earthwork unfolds in three parts. The first section begins near the time of the mother’s “can’t eat / won’t eat” and her eventual death. The second section returns to the daughter’s childhood, providing the historical context by “rattling the traces.” In the third section, readers witness the daughter’s “heptahedron” of grief and her “going a-hunting / for the part of [her] / that can live through this.” Adjacent to its exploration of “a bad luck message / encoded in the genes,” the poems consider the inheritance of failure among women — how a mother’s inability to be loving can lead to a daughter’s struggle to love herself. Additionally, they address broader societal questions: What constitutes female failure, and by whom is it designated? Does this prevent open discussions of abuse?
The emotional depth of the poems is marked by specific images and recurring punctuation on the page. Each punctuation choice contains a contrapuntal argument. Forward slashes suggest separation or alternative. Brackets suggest isolation or interjection. Caesura enacts breaking hearts or bonds. Central images also contain counterpoints. The recurring figure of a horse symbolizes both the mother’s “rigid rein” and the daughter’s free spirit. The collection’s title acts as a “metonymic vessel,” representing not only the mother’s life and the daughter’s life, but also the clay pots the mother created, a funeral urn, and even the poetry collection itself.
Written in all lowercase, Jill Khoury’s poems strive to “break the code” of poetic, familial, and societal conventions. They avoid easy explanations and quick resolutions, recognizing the ongoing nature of grief.
earthwork by Jill Khoury. Switchback Books, February 2024.
Reviewer bio: Jami Macarty is the author of The Long Now Conditions Permit, winner of the 2023 Test Site Poetry Series Prize (forthcoming University of Nevada Press), and The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), winner of the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award – Poetry Arizona. Jami’s four chapbooks include The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024) and Mind of Spring (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2017), winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. To learn more about Jami’s writing, editing, and teaching practices, visit her author website.
