“Heaven in Miniature” by Mary Szybist

Reading “Heaven in Miniature” for the first time definitely had me confused. Having to go from two different religions in a poem is very confusing. For you this also might have been confusing, but let me break it down for you. When you first look at the poem you see the line “for Tina Wang (1984-2001),” and Tina Wang was one of Szybist’s students and in an interview Szybist said that Wang told her that she did not believe in any version of the afterlife as they were never realistic. This stuck with Szybist when Wang soon died in a fatal car crash. When writing the poem, she wanted to create a version of the afterlife that seemed realistic to Wang with last line “counts and counts and finds that he lacks nothing,” which represents going through the moments in your life.

Szybist alludes to two religions in the poem: Christianity and Greek mythology. Szybist grew up very religious as a child, which we can see when she mentions “a white-haired, white-robbed shepherd calls out to you, unbuckles your sandaled feet.” The shepherd in question is God telling those before entering Heaven to take off your shoes because where you enter is holy ground. Szybist then switches to Greek mythology when talking about the story of Odysseus in the poem “The Odyssey” when Odysseus dies. After Odysseus dies, he is brought to the afterlife (“the land looks strange, unearthly strange and unforgivable”). She then goes onto explain how Odysseus sees “treasure that sits around him like spilled confetti.” This line is my favorite of the whole poem of how Szybist refers to our memories and our past life as “treasure” and “confetti,” as confetti is meant to symbolize happiness. The rest of the poem talks about Odysseus looking at the moments of his past, but not remembering them.

The reason Szybist uses the story of Odysseus in the poem is to talk about what seemed real in the afterlife to Wang and herself, seeing the memories of our past and what made us happy. She also refers to the idea that the spiritual process of humans for many years has never changed as Odysseus story takes pace way before the birth of Jesus and Christianity, but the idea of Odysseus arriving in the afterlife is something that is painted by many Christian denominations. The idea that humans have believed in is the idea that when we die, we will go through the moments of our live, the memories of what we loved and what brought us to this moment before we die. This idea is what sets the ground work for the “realistic” picture of the afterlife for Szybist, an idea that many humans have been able to relate and believe in for a very long time, and if many humans can believe in this idea, than maybe Tina Wang could believe in such an idea. I think for Szybist to be writing this elegy for her student shows just how deep of a connection the two had, especially if they were able to talk about such deep topics like death and the afterlife. For many, losing one that is close to you can be hard and many people cope and deal with grief in different ways. In my opinon, I do think that writing this poem for Tina Wang, some who was very close to her, was a way to cope by imaging that Wang is now in a better place, a better place that what Wang wouldn’t believe in.

“Aubade with Cutlery and Crickets”

Reading this, you are probably wondering if this poem is about cooking or about a person. Nezhukumatathil’s “Aubade with Cutlery and Crickets” conveys the relationship of the herself and her cooking through the delightful presence of her silverware, showing how passion can be conveyed through the emotions of love.

When reading the poem, the author talks directly to her drawer of cutlery and talks to the cutlery as if it were a person. The author talks to the cutlery as a person when saying, “Even your hands have become a kind of instrument—.” She is talking about a fork in this section, describing the fork as if it had hands like a person. Now that the reader has figured out who the speaker is talking to, now we have to figure out what the poem is even about. Starting at the first stanza of the poem, Nezhukumatathil mentions how she is cooking dinner for herself and is opening her silverware drawer, and opening the drawer, she can smell the silver and metal-ness of the butter knifes. She doesn’t need a knife, but she instead looks for a serving spoon to scoop out food into a bowl, and she is also looking for a fork to eat her meal with. Her meal being butternut squash roasted in honeyjuice, ugh that sounds really yummy, probably shouldn’t be writing this on an empty stomach! Anyways, she then starts to talk about the characteristics of the fork as if it were a person with hands (as mentioned awhile ago) that are delicate enough to get crabmeat out of a shell. But then Nezhukumatathil shifts from an awakening feeling and inspired awe to a sense of closure, saying that instead of smelling the metal of the knifes as said in the first stanza, she smelled the cleanliness of the knife, saying goodbye just before putting the knife back into its dispenser.

After piecing together what the speaker is talking about, we could infer that the poem is set early in the morning when Nezhukumatathil is putting away all of her dishes, and looking at a knife and the silverware, she remembers the meals she had with her silverware and how great they were, but then says goodbye to her knife, putting it back where it belongs in the kitchen. Having the poem being set in the morning makes sense as Nezhukumatathil mentions saying goodbye to her knifes saying, “…I smelled that morning still full of starlight and crickets when we said goodbye—.” Another reason it makes sense is the title of the poem containing the word “Aubade,” which means a dawn serenade, where morning comes and a person, with regret, must leave their loved one to go out into the world. Looking at the title, the reader gets the idea that the poem is set early in the morning, where the silverware reminds the speaker of how much she loves her food, and she must say goodbye to her silverware, possibly having to go to work or do something that requires being outside of the kitchen.

Overall, the poem reminds the readers that we can take silverware for granted, as we should love it as much as she does because it helps give us something we all love, food. The tone of the poem is peaceful and euphonious, using words that sooth the soul and imagery that makes the reader feel as if they are eating a meal with Nezhukumatathil herself, and the casesuras after two lines helps slow down the poem, for readers to savor the sweet memory of food with the speaker.

At the Pumpkin Festival My Lips Burn Bright

When reading Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poem “At the Pumpkin Festival My Lips Burn Bright,” it just makes you want to drink a pumpkin spiced latte from Starbucks. I thought since the weather has finally started to become cold, and the leaves are changing from their bright green colors to their warm dark and orange colors, I thought it made sense to talk about this poem. First of, the title of the poem using words such as “Pumpkin,” “Festival,” and “Bright” sets the warm and content tone of the rest of the work as it gives off the sense that the reader can relate to the poem and makes the poem seem inviting for readers to read even if they cannot relate to the poem. Nezhukumatathil starts off the poem by setting the scene talking about boys throwing pumpkins, using personification to describe the pumpkins the way its being thrown in air “like suns too drunk from summer’s end.” The author then takes the next stanza to describe the shape of pumpkins through euphonic words such as “thumpy,” “satisfying,” “belly,” “plim,” and “nicely.” The use of these euphony words keeps the warm and content tone set up since the title of the page constant, until, there is a setting and tone shift when she begins to talk about her mother.

She talks about how she wanted to harvest a pumpkin with her mom so it could be her mom’s birthday cake, as her mom’s birthday is the day before Halloween. Nezhukumatathil starts to bring in cacophony words such as “witch,” “gutrot,” and “crunch” to hint to the reader that their is a tone shift. The tone, which was something that was warm and something the readers could relate to, has now shifted into a stern and harsh tone that becomes harder for the reader to enjoy as anyone enjoys a warm story than a harsh story, however, the author talks about memories of her mother readers could possibly relate to. She describes her mother as a witch, which ties into that Fall and Halloween theme of the poem. Towards the end of the poem, I started to become confused when she says, “The crunch of toasted seeds–the only salty protection my mouth has against witches.” I was confused reading this because how could seeds, possibly from a pumpkin, protect her from her mom? I like to think that her eating the seeds keeps her from talking back to her mom, which I can definitely relate to. I can also relate to the fact that she calls her mom a witch, becuase sometimes my mom can be a witch too. Not that my mom is a bad and ugly person like a witch, my mom is awesome, but when she makes me help her clean the house I like to think of her as one!

Overall, the poem brings in the readers as it contains aspects that people can relate to such as Fall, pumpkins, and Halloween, and through its warm and inviting tone of talking about pumpkins, the reader becomes more interested in this warm and inviting tone being set. Not only that, but I am sure many readers can relate to the fact that at some point they thought of their mom or parent as a witch or bad person for making them do something they do not like. The tone shift of the poem is something the readers may come short in appreciating, but it was something I noticed. When reading this poem, I derive the meaning that not everything is perfect that we enjoy. I know we all enjoy Fall and the season of giving, but not everything turns out as planned, and when I read this poem, I get the feeling like Nezhukumatathil is trying to tell her readers a story, a story about a little girl who loves Fall and Halloween because it is a very important time for her mom as it is close to her moms birthday. However, she recalls a bittersweet moment from her childhood about a time when her imagination ran high on the idea that her mom was a witch for cutting her bedtime and pumpkin seeds was protection against her mom. I think the poem is warm and fun to read because of how quickly the tone shifts, and I can’t wait to read more poems just like this.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the New York Times best-selling illustrated collection of nature essays, WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS, which was chosen as Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year and named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She also wrote four previous poetry collections: OCEANIC, LUCKY FISH, AT THE DRIVE-IN VOLCANO, and MIRACLE FRUIT. With the poet Ross Gay, she co-authored the chapbook  LACE & PYRITE, a collaboration of epistolary garden poems. Her writing appears twice in the Best American Poetry Series, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and The Paris Review.

Honors include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pushcart Prize, a Mississippi Arts Council grant, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the first-ever poetry editor for SIERRA magazine, the story-telling arm of The Sierra Club. Nezhukumatathil is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program where she received the faculty’s Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award.