Our List of Solutions, by Carrie Oeding
(42 Miles Press, 2011)
It is an important fact every reader should be warned of: Carrie Oeding’s book Our List of Solutions, at some point during its composition, found the secret lair of the Carpe Diem. The Latin creature was trying very hard to be careless. “Oh, just live in the moment,” Carpe Diem told Oeding. “We can be friends in the moment.” But Oeding outwitted the dumb animal. She eyed the Carpe Diem suspiciously, and in this book of poems, she transforms it into a jeweled surface. Of course, life is fascinating. Each day can be full of life. “And so?” Oeding asks. “What’s your point?”
Which is a dangerous question to ask. No one wants to involve themselves with a book of poems whose only emotion is cynicism. It would be as bad as reading one that functions only on irony. “Yes, Ironic Book of Poems, you’re clever. But then what?” Oeding is not against the Carpe Diem. The poems believe in joy. Her objection is more along the lines of Aristotle: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And if there’s anything that doesn’t know self-awareness, it’s definitely Carpe Diem. It’s pretty much retarded for any sentiment but one: “I’m ready!” And it’s all Carpe Diem can do but scream that phrase over and over again. Oeding’s speaker has had just about enough. Everyone around her is so ready to be ready. But you can’t sit around expecting the unexpected.
So how is it Oeding craves the unexpected? This, for me, is the paradox that drives Our List of Solutions forward. And I marvel at how this speaker seems to be holding Life down, like she wants to smother it. She has so much snark for people she’s deemed pathetic. Poor Stacey. Poor Rob. Poor Maureen and Steve. Maybe all Life is pathetic in your lives, because you’re trying so hard. You’re trying to make surprise happen with a litany to Carpe Diem. That’s not how it works. Read about bright autumn trees in “Apology for Meditation.” Read about real trumpet playing in “Poem in the Shape of a Trumpet.” Oeding’s speaker knows joy. She has a poem called “Joy,” in case you need to check it for reference.
How odd it is to claim you would persevere against Carpe Diem. It’s such a kind and excitable creature. In our contemporary culture, it is the root of all joy. Or, perhaps, as Oeding would posit, Carpe Diem leads to an indiscriminate acceptance of every joy. Which makes less the enjoyment of deep joy. It’s a welcome point of debate complicated by Our List of Solution’s speaker—someone who would criticize others’ joys, and yet, still, be struck so deeply by joy. This is the book’s imaginative and magical leap. It is the contradicting heartbeat at the book’s center. Yes, it is possible to be cynical and optimistic and puzzled and inconceivably charmed all at once. Does that lead to any of the solutions proposed by the title? Not so much. More that the confident impulse to list things, and the intention to drive that list forward is plenty solution enough.
Recommended links:
Our List of Solutions
Carrie Oeding's official web page
"Work Harder" on Verse Daily
An excellent interview
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