Poetry Review: Susan Minot

In her collection of poetry, “Poems 4 A.M.,” Susan Minot focuses on the mixed emotions associated with loving someone, primarily the feelings of heartache, betrayal, and loss experienced when men refuse to commit or lie about their true intentions. Her poems have a raw wounded tone to them, and appear to be written when the memories of failed relationships are still fresh in her consciousness. Minot is constantly questioning the ability of men to stay faithful to one woman, and she struggles with her own desires as a human being to find love, while exploring the possibility that true love does not exist.

 

           I dive into a pile of leaves

and hit the ground hard.

Would that these rocks lodged here

so fixed and stern

would give me something fixed and firm

as belief.

 

Throughout her collection, Minot expresses a certain vulnerability that is evident by her fractured sense of self; her sense of identity and self worth have been jeopardized by the manipulation of men.

 

            And soon enough you’ll shift your weight

            adjusting to a ruined bed,

then say you need to be alone.

and you’ll give the hand a little squeeze,

and you’ll pat her lightly on the head.

 

By organizing her thoughts and emotions into poetry, Minot is dealing with the emotions and questions she is struggling with, generating a therapeutic escape from the thoughts reverberating in her mind.

 

The title of this collection of poetry, “Poems at 4 A.M,” represents the commonality between the darkness of Minot’s own thoughts and the darkness associated with the night. Glimmers of hope in Minot’s poetry hint that love or happiness may come again, but these glimmers are overshadowed by the same hesitation of belief and doubt that the Sun will remember to return and light a new day. Minot's inability to accept that love is long lasting and true, even in the light of day, is shown by her personification of the world as being cold and hard. The sky like white marble shoulders.

This collection of poems includes many forms, including prose poems, free verse, and sonnets. Minot’s poems are written simply with casual diction, and she usually employs short sentences with the exception of her prose poems. The simplicity of her poems work well with the chosen subject matter, as the emotions experienced by Minot are clearly conveyed to and felt by the reader.

The poetry is broken into sections referring to different places. The first section is labeled “Massachusetts,” which refers to Minot’s current residence and family history. This is an appropriate place to start, as she first sets down her roots, and then expands the universality of her themes and subject matter to include other places, such as “London,” “New York City,” and the “Islands.” The book ends with the poem “Dawn in a Chilmark Dawn” where the poet awakes from deep sleep or mediation, and comes to the conclusion that “no one stays.” Instead, of experiencing a moment of renewal with the morning she is filled with the same sense of gloom that pervades the majority of the poetry in this collection.