The Long Now Conditions Permit by Jami Macarty

The poems of Jami Macarty’s new book The Long Now Conditions Permit read like a dreamscape of sound and nature. In fact, one of the chief propelling forces of these poems is language. Take for example, “Mind of Spring”

beak k to t twig

to beak k

verdin pair up

construct t t

their nest

in palo verde’s branches

birds’ t turns

t tamping

nest

You can hear the birds’ staccato sounds while they build their nest. We are in their space and their soundscape. These poems go deeper into the natural world that any I’ve encountered before. Similarly, the invitation from the natural world in “Interface”

Where a pine shrugs its shroud of snow

a dusk-emerging doe

turns her gentle face to mine.

The lulling of the ‘sh’ sounds in the start of that and the soft ‘d’ and long ‘i’ and ‘a’ all echo the invitation to be quiet and join with the natural world.

The Long Now Conditions Permit won the Test Site Poetry Prize, which selects books that “engage the perilous conditions of life in the twenty-first century, as they pertain to issues of social justice and the earth.” Macarty’s poems startle the reader into seeing the world new, and deeply, and with alarm. Buy here.