I'm not quite sure why it has taken so long to get around to reviewing Cluster (when I reviewed Thammavongsa's 3 earlier collections back in April). Some elements are pretty similar to the previous collections. Thammavongsa engages in some word play. She sort of plays with the tropes of being an outsider poet, particularly when she thinks back to her youth as an outsider in Toronto with immigrant parents. (There are a few poems where she explains why she is in so few photos as a child, and it isn't simply because her parents were too poor to buy film for the camera.) I may have simply missed him the first time around, but there are a couple of poems where she talks about her younger brother and how he was overlooked a fair bit, wearing her cast-off clothing, which must have made things even harder for him as a boy in staid Toronto in the 1970s. In general, people who liked this aspect of Found and Light will find many of the poems basically tread the same ground.
However, she has added to her repertoire with a new type of poem, which I liked quite a bit. Thammavongsa has included 5 poems (Brokerage Report I - V) that sort of read like found poems (if one was randomly scrolling through the financial pages of a newspaper).
Here's a short section of "Brokerage Report II": "It's robust. The complex dynamics / of a particular cycle. ... / ... / In summary, given / the difficulty of predicting and time, / we do remain optimistic. ... / ... / It's robust. / Trends. The risks could be amplified."
"Brokerage Report III" also tries to sugar coat bad news for the presumed investor: "Yield. Energy prices sank / today. Focus on rising / earnings instead. Bigger / profits and a higher finish."
Given how financial news has become a staple of primetime news (and not just an esoteric report for investors), it is a bit surprising fewer poets and authors have really tackled the stock market. I thought Thammavongsa had an interesting take, which did add to my enjoyment of Cluster.
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