The Meter Reader: Jos Charles's聽蹿别别濒诲听"reveals familiarity is a con"
Amie Whittemore, with editorial support from James Ascher
搁别惫颈别飞别诲:听feeld聽by Jos Charles (Milkweed Editions, 2018).
When I picked up Jos Charles鈥檚聽feeld, I knew nothing about it, aside from the praise for it wafting through the poetry internet. I turned to the first poem and said to myself, 鈥淲ait, is the whole book going to be like this?鈥� 鈥淟ike this鈥� being a Chaucerian spelling of English (you鈥檇 think the title would have given me a clue, but reader, I鈥檓 often oblivious). However, I try to be game when a book invites me to confront my own limitations and privileges as a reader and a person, so I pushed through my discomfort. I鈥檓 glad I did. The reading never got easy, the spelling never grew familiar, the work always effortful; of course, that is Charles鈥檚 point. As a trans writer, writing a trans experience, Charles contends, through this masterful, strange, and intelligent collection, that any language that is not transformative, not revolutionary, not calling attention to itself as an act of defiance and beauty, falls short.聽蹿别别濒诲听refuses to be anything but its own invention of itself.
Highly lyrical, the poems鈥攚hich arguably are one poem, broken into 60 parts鈥攄o not trace a clear narrative, relying on repeated motifs to ground the reader. Throughout the collection horse(s) (鈥渉ors鈥�), trees (鈥渢reees鈥�), gardens (鈥済uardens鈥�), fields (鈥渇eelds鈥�), bird suits (鈥渂ird soots鈥�) and 鈥渇eemale depositrie rooms鈥� (bathrooms?) appear. Still, even these repetitions are destabilizing, as the alternative spellings multiply meaning; this multiplication is further complicated by the fact that some of Charles鈥檚 alternative spellings can be found as headwords in the聽聽while others cannot. In this way, she creates a hybrid transliteration of English, implementing spelling patterns from Middle English in new ways to refashion our relationship to language and meaning.
In the first poem (鈥淚.鈥�) the speaker is 鈥渁 hors / i am sadeld / 聽聽 i am a brokn hors.鈥� While a 鈥渉ors鈥� was an alternate spelling of 鈥渉orse鈥� in Middle English, it also worked as an聽聽Furthermore, while the etymologies of 鈥渉orse鈥� and 鈥渨hore鈥� are not linked, older spellings of 鈥渨hore鈥� often omitted the 鈥渨鈥� according to the Oxford English Dictionary (鈥淟ate Old English聽丑贸谤别聽, corresponding to (Middle) Low German聽丑贸谤别鈥�). Thus, 鈥渉ors鈥� not only ferries a coarseness within it, but also 鈥渨hores,鈥� drawing attention to the problems of naming, gender, and sexuality at the heart of this collection: what we identify ourselves as is not necessarily what the world assigns us; all language is coarse in its attempts to limn reality. Rather than resist this friction, Charles develops an aesthetic that flourishes in this interstitial space.
In section 鈥淟.鈥� the speaker expands on this notion: 鈥渘oting is / equivalent / 2 / itself / inn this citie / a tran is herd / onlie as interchange.鈥� The use of 鈥渢ran鈥� here as a signifier of a trans-person utilizes the history of the word as an alternate spelling for 鈥渢rain,鈥� which has transported many meanings within it through the centuries. One obsolete definition鈥攊n use from 1390-1831鈥攊s 鈥渢reachery, guile, deceit, trickery; prevarication鈥� (OED). Another concurrent meaning indicates a stratagem or false story; of course a 鈥渢rain鈥� has come to be known as a means of聽transport, of聽transportation. The word holds within it destabilization and movement: a deep illegibility.聽 Furthermore, if a 鈥渢ran鈥� is he(a)rd, is that identity somehow collective as well as an interchange? To be trans then, a kind of quantum physics, to be wave and particle at once? A partial answer emerges in poem 鈥淴X.鈥� when Charles writes 鈥渋f the hors knew / the feeld from its bit.鈥� Knowing the expanse of the 鈥渇eeld鈥� from the metal of a 鈥渂it鈥� suggests part of the problem of identifying and articulating trans experience is that trauma is rooted in it; it is disrupting a patriarchal, gender-normed system, and in doing so reveals the system鈥檚 deep, riven flaws鈥攖hus to stand in the freedom of the 鈥渇eeld鈥� is also to be aware of the power of the 鈥渂it.鈥�
奥丑颈濒别听feeld聽plays with language, 鈥減layful鈥� is not a word I would use to describe it. Rather it is, as Charles states in 鈥淴XVIII.,鈥� a 鈥済ashe inn that sintacks.鈥� This poetry is more wound than play, as Charles deconstructs then reconstructs language to make space for a life that so often is unseen or mis-seen. As in 鈥淴LI.,鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 stop caling me he
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 spils lik lite /
pleese / 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 lik daye lite on hils /
a loss / 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 bieng seen
departure is central to a trans life, as loss is fundamental to departure: one departs from an ill-fitting identity and ventures into a new one; as this venture is always unfolding; as it is that sometimes 鈥渢he bit provydes / its hors鈥� (鈥淟V.鈥�). To pin down every fold of Charles鈥檚 collection, every nuance of image and syntax would be an impossible translation;聽蹿别别濒诲听is meant to be ineffable as much as it is also heartbroken, provocative, and inquisitive. It is a philosophy text wrapped inside queer theory distilled into an epic-lyrical poem.
While reading this book felt like reading a book in a mirror at times, that is the point: to be cis is to be privileged with an alignment of self and body, is to be (or at least to be presumed to be) readable. A knowable text. What聽蹿别别濒诲听reveals is that familiarity is a con, a catch, a faulty presumption: the minute we think we鈥檝e got something pinned down, it turns into a wave鈥攆rom our sense of self to our sense of others, to our very ideas of what a poem can be.
聽is the author of the poetry collection聽Glass Harvest聽(Autumn House Press). Her poems have won multiple awards, including a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize, and her poems and prose have appeared in聽The Gettysburg Review,听Nashville Review,听Smartish Pace,听Pleiades, and elsewhere. She teaches English at Middle Tennessee State University.