Featured Read: As Is by Julia Spicher Kasdorf
“I, too, write by the sentence, / compose as is, then break my lines”
What happens if we refrain from fixing things around us? What occurs if we cannot tape or glue or hammer them into new forms, and rather, we examine them as is? Julia Spicher Kasdorf approaches these complex questions in her collection of poetry, aptly titled, As Is.
Spicher Kasdorf’s poems are both personal and public, carrying her own narrative within the history of Pennsylvania and the world. Her collection is divided into three sections, each preceded by a quote to encapsulate that section’s theme. The first quote from Wallace Stevens stood out to me the most: “To fix it is to put an end to it. Let me show it to you unfixed.” This idea of presenting the “unfixed,” speaks to Spicher Kasdorf’s writing and how she exposes the reality of her subjects, rather than the “fixed” imaginary circumstances.
Spicher Kasdorf plays into duality throughout As Is, confronting urban and rural life, private and public, marriage and divorce, men and women, clarity and confusion. Grief is present throughout her work, and rightfully so, as it is the emotion, we often have the least control over and must accept as it comes. This grief weaves its way throughout Spicher Kasdorf’s poems, as she meditates on our ever-changing world.
The environment is central to this collection’s grief, with nature an omnipresent force as Spicher Kasdorf reflects on the degradation of her surroundings. In the poem “Dialogue with Lake Perez,” the lake is a character who urges the speaker, “Remove your shoes, step in.” Along with Spicher Kasdorf’s examination of the environment, comes a focus on impermanence which bleeds into much more than the conditions of hemlock trees, roads, and lakes.
In the poem, “Climate Change with Daughters and Tomatoes,” the speaker recalls purchasing tomatoes from a farm stand and canning them with her daughter. Spicher Kasdorf writes, “I have always believed things / will turn out with work and hope, maybe not quite / what you thought, but somehow.” However, the tomatoes in her poem rot and turn moldy—and thus, like the speaker accepts the rotten tomatoes, we must accept things in life, as is.
As a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania, As Is felt personal, like I was stepping into my backyard or listening to the local news. Spicher Kasdorf’s poem “Waking Up with Jerry Sandusky,” about the former Penn State football coach and convicted sex offender, really stood out to me. The diction in this haunting piece is precise and illustrates the roots of Pennsylvania, deep within the story: “Sandusky is the Germanized spelling / of Sandowski, Sedowski, names lugged into / mills by men who worked 16-hour days then / built homes, a Polish social club, a church / up the hill.” This poem shows the ugly reality of Sandusky, a part of Pennsylvania, exposed.
Julia Spicher Kasdorf’s As Is takes a magnifying glass to the cracks in our landscapes, both near and far, internal and external. Her poems accept that transition, tension, and trauma are constantly at play, unavoidable elements of living.
Writing Prompt:
Throughout As Is, Spicher Kasdorf embraces and explores private thoughts that appear differently in public. In the poem, “Second Space,” she writes, “No one/ to tell, no one to blame but myself, I pulled the blind / and tucked that mistake away, like all the rest.”
Write a poem that presents the “unfixed” or “tucked away” elements of a person, place, or object. Explore the idea that appearance and reality are not always in agreement. How does this secret reveal itself?
Happy writing!
