Triptychs

Author: Sandra Simonds

Publisher: Wave Books (2022)

Initially crafted in handwritten strips on rolls of receipt paper obtained at a dollar store, then assembled into three textual columns that sit side-by-side on the page, these triptychs are joined or disjoined in several ways—through diction, through the special relation of words (evoking intimacy, touch, or, in contrast, alienation), and through thematic similarities or dissimilarities. As a result, the poems energize the confines of this writing space as they invite readers to recall painterly constructions and news headlines, wherein each pillar is in conversation with another, sequentially and simultaneously. With the same lyric attention found in all of Simonds's poetry, the poems in Triptychs mark an innovative shift in poetics that is both polyvocal and singular.

"Fevered and philosophical, Simonds’s fierce lyric rages against capitalism and patriarchy for stifling compassion and collective imagination."

–The New Yorker