An Inventory of Abundance: a review of Durable Goods by James Pollock
Reviewer: Dawn Macdonald
The pleasure of reading James Pollockโs collection Durable Goods (Vรฉhicule Press, 2022) is reminiscent of hours once spent flipping through the old Sears catalogue, for those who are of an age to remember such days. You may have had no money, and no plans to place any sort of order, but could still feel the joy of abundance, just to know of the existence of so many overstuffed sofa sets, luxurious terrycloth bathrobes, and deluxe electronically equipped vegetable chopping devices. Durable Goods provides a richly detailed, comprehensive inventory of the furnishings and fixtures of prosperous, middle-class homes, from ceiling fan to washing machine.
Pollock has set himself an exercise with rather rigid boundaries: rhymed quatrains, two to four in number, describing a household object as a springboard to some form of insight or unusual viewpoint. The final poem, โWind Turbineโ, perhaps stretches the definition of โhouseholdโ, but the poet pulls it into the quotidian by outlining a few uses to which electrical power is put within the home. While this has somewhat the feel of a workshop prompt extended to book length, Pollock has the assured and wry voice to sustain the conceit, to pull off the same trick nearly fifty times in a row without a slip-up. Just this in itself is exciting, like watching a magic act, allowing ourselves to feel repeatedly awed.
The conceptual frame of the poems calls to mind the Anglo-Saxon riddle, perhaps most familiar to modern readers through J.R.R. Tolkienโs reworking of the form in The Hobbit, where Bilbo and Gollum engage in some high-stakes verbal sparring underground. The poem โSpectaclesโ, for example, starts off, โArms folded on the desk. Theyโre skeptical, / aloof. They have their own way of seeing / things โฆโ, while the โOscillating Fanโ is a โโฆ time-lapse sunflower in a cage, / chrome heliotrope โฆโ, and the โLockโ is a โsteel tongueโ and โmy front doorโs strongest part.โ Were it not for the dead giveaway of the titles, one could find enjoyment in attempting to guess the object from the verse, or perhaps one might try posing these to family members as a series of brain-teasers.
The list of items included raises certain questions. Are these the poetโs own things? What lifestyle is implied? Seemingly a house rather than an apartment, with the suburban accoutrements of lawn mower and sprinkler, where the householder takes up occasional maintenance tasks using a framing hammer and saw. A climate requiring an umbrella but also an ultrasonic humidifier. But then there is an elevator, so perhaps all is not set within the one single-family dwelling. Just as each piece has a riddling quality, so too does the collection as a whole, sketching but not fully explicating the details of a way of life.
Point of view is rather curious in these poems. Some, like โTeaspoonโ, offer a third-person description of the objectโwhat it looks like, what it does. Others, like โRefrigeratorโ, take a more didactic stance from the outset (โCompartmentalizing is its super- / power. Everything inside has its cool / dry place, from the egg tray to the crisper โฆโ) and then veer into outright moralizing at the end (without giving spoilers, the second-to-last line begins โand reveals the truth โฆโ, then goes on to do so).
Occasionally, the poet places himself within the sceneโsitting under the โGooseneck Lampโ, for exampleโand the โFaucetโ turns out to be a poet in its own right. Several poems make reference to a generic โyouโ or โoneโ who may interact with some parallel iteration of the specific tool or device. There is a playful shifting quality in tone and perspective that adds to the puzzle-solving enjoyment presented to the reader throughout this collection.
Durable Goods engages the mind while opening the gaze. As the poet says in the opening piece, a book may be โโฆ a strange grove in which the author is a bird / and the reader the fresh wind that turns the leaves.โ ย
James Pollockย is the author ofย Sailing to Babylonย (2012), a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Award in Poetry. His prizes include the Manchester Poetry Prize, the Magma Editors’ Prize, and the Guy Owen Prize fromย Southern Poetry Review. His other books includeย You Are Here: Essays on the Art of Poetry in Canadaย (2012) andย The Essential Daryl Hineย (2015). He grew up in southern Ontario, Canada, and is now Professor of English at Loras College. He lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin.
