THE BONES IN THE GARDEN is a poetry collection on a theme—or, rather, many themes. Elizabeth Michaud divides this collection into three parts, each weaving in and out of history, demonstrating how all her experiences are ultimately intertwined.
The title poem of the collection, like many others, addresses the United States’ history of slavery and its subsequent history of systemic racism. While the early span of poems talks directly about historical events, the topics discussed move forward in time as the collection moves on. Later poems serve as responses to other works of fiction and poetry, such as “Son to Mother”—an inversion of “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes.
Toward the center of her collection, Michaud begins musing on love: its ups and downs, secret lovers, and lovers who couldn’t be who she needed them to be. These poems range from heartfelt and erotic to brief, anguished musings about the unnamed lover eyeing another woman. The sheer scope of these pieces, when read together, is a beautiful snapshot of intimacy: the ups and downs, the comfort and anxiety, the moments that last in the memory, and the moments that make it clear that a relationship has run its course.
Scattered poems also discuss modern life—Michaud’s and life in general. What does it mean to age gracefully in the modern day? What does it mean to be a woman? To be Black? Even in the more upbeat verses, the collection’s early poems still cast a shadow, contextualizing every experience.
Michaud’s poetry is, broadly speaking, very strong. But it’s in her free verse when her emotions come out in full. The metered, rhyming poems have moments where the right word feels stifled by the need to hold the pattern; but the rest speak volumes, unconstrained. “September Storm,” an ode to civil rights activist James Meredith, depicts his turbulent arrival as the first Black student at the segregated University of Mississippi. The verse taps irregularly, telling a story but carrying the reader along rhythmically in a way a simple history lesson could not:
“Men stood at the gate, like shutters on windows
to keep the rain out,
but he blew in with the force of a hurricane,
federal marshals by his side,
and burst through those shutters at Ole Miss.”
For full effect, THE BONES IN THE GARDEN must be read as one complete work, rather than as a buffet of smaller stand-alone pieces. Everything ties together in the center: the history, the modernity, the love and disappointment and anxiety. It’s a gorgeous collection, and one that will have readers seeking out Michaud’s other poems.
Elizabeth Michaud’s poetry in THE BONES IN THE GARDEN beautifully and compellingly runs the gamut from historical injustice to modern themes of love, loss, and age.
~Kara Dennison for IndieReader