| Title | : | Just to the Right of the Stove |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1733974466 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781733974462 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 132 |
| Publication | : | Published February 12, 2021 |
– Damien Donnelly, Poet and Author
Elisabeth Horan is a pioneer in remaking the concept of a persona poem with this collection. In “Godammit! Just Hurl That Sink Already”, she plays with meter, rhythm—the building-blocks of language to evoke a feeling both playful and dangerous, “belly all swoll’d up like a capybara in a python.” These tricks evoke a stream-of-conscious dissociation or dismantling of language in “An Interlude” which is starkly contrasted by the instruction to “Just let go” in the poem that follows, “Thankful”. This results in a handful of poems which visually splice along the page, mimicking the process they describe. In “Dabbing the Corners of Our Mouths Like Ladies” Horan makes a questioning assertion that left me breathless, “Did I die, like Sylvia - / or did I survive, / Like Elisabeth.” The sentence forms a question, but the poem ends there. Period. The intention is poignantly aware. This is not a question. Horan has survived, and she gives us so much evidence of her depth of living, “For two hours I laid there with a button under my thumb / Magnets clanging in and around my skull.” This shows us how it feels to be reduced to scientific measurement. Yet, in the first line, “I secretly think I am better than you.” Horan finds a way to burn her reader, (which could be us, or could be Sylvia,) while confiding her most intimate inner-workings, which makes us feel like a trusted friend—as if we are in on the secret and loved, even though it might be about us all. Her brave, biting words ring on every page of this creation. Telling a story that even Sylvia could not quite get to the heart of, in a voice that hints at Sylvia’s life, but tells it in a way that is uniquely Horan’s voice. These conversations border obsessive, vital, life-giving. The projection of Sylvia gives place to depression and motherhood—the battle is palpable “My nails are down to the quick, / Lost talons in her paper skin / I lose a shoe, I knock out my tooth / Upon the door of the stove.” And as we read, we shift with Sylvia, holding the generosity of Horan’s offering, a window into the depth of her experiences, which are both uniquely her own and universally felt.
- Kari Flickinger
Just to the Right of the Stove Reviews
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Literary Flits
Just to the Right of the Stove is an evocatively mundane title for Elisabeth Horan's new poetry collection, conjuring up images of cosy kitchens and domestic bliss when the reality of life, as seen through Horan's poetry, is a series of very different scenarios. The poems are linked by an imagined conversation between Horan herself and the American poet with whom she particularly identifies, Sylvia Plath. Both women suffered intensely from postpartum depression and the ramifications of this for themselves and their families are the focus of Just to the Right of the Stove.
I felt I was not as familiar as I needed to be with Plath's work in order to fully appreciate Horan's overtly experimental poems. I've only read The Bell Jar once, several years ago, and don't recall ever having read her poetry. That said, I appreciated the more accessible works which allowed me disturbing insights into the poet's mind. To see how her self-perception is warped by this mental illness was unsettling to me as a reader, and I can't even begin to imagine how traumatic it must be to be locked into that reality, especially as Horan shows she is only too aware of her irrational behaviour, yet without the means to change it. Just To The Right Of The Stove vividly portrays her life, I thought, in a way that a factual essay could never do.
Thinking back over the emotions this collection provoked in me as I read, I feel that I also gained understanding through the inscrutable poems with which, at the time, I failed to connect. One poem, Keeping Tabs or Dabbing The Corners Of Our Mouths Like Ladies, for example, had me believing that I understood Horan's predicament and, arrogantly, even that I could empathise, but turning a page to then struggle with Not your type of alone, swirling away beyond my comprehension, demonstrated quite the opposite to be true. Just To The Right Of The Stove allowed me to see how much I cannot know. -
In this intense collection of poetry, Horan imagines conversations she would have had with Sylvia Plath if she was given the chance. Sadly as we all know Plath ended her days in 1963 by putting her head in the oven and turning up the gas while her children slept in the other room. A tragic end to a talented woman who was battling her inner demons alone for years. This is Horan’s heartbreaking, honest tribute to a mother and fellow poet who wanted to put an end to her pain.
These poems have strong themes of depression, suicide, identity and acceptance. They reflect both women’s fears and doubts of struggling to understand how to accept themselves as they are. Which in turn can become isolating as they feel no one understands them. It’s difficult at times to read as there is so much emotion and despair on the page. You can feel their pain and the darkness creeping up on you the more you venture in. It’s hard hitting stuff dear reader but you persevere as you see tiny flecks of light towards the end of the tunnel.
The first poem the reader encounters, Near The Fridge is of the two meeting for the first time. There are pleasantries and a shared pain between them. Plath questions what it is that Horan needs from her as she states she has a husband who is honest and well kept. Horan wishes Plath to teach her what it means to be an artist, to have a voice not just upon the page but all around. She questions Plath if she has to die in order to become famous, to be heard. It is an interesting aspect to read, one poet seeking advice and guidance from another. The two share certain similarities such as their constant battle with depression. Plath’s fate is unfortunately already sealed while Horan still has the chance to decide which path she will take.
Horan wonders in her poetry if Plath had been offered the help and had the services that are provided to the public struggling with mental illness today, would she still have taken her life? Would Horan have been able to save her? She wonders how difficult it must have gotten for Plath for her to leave her children behind. She reflects on this in Dabbing the Corners of Our Mouths Like Ladies, and how she knows what could have happened to her. In her own dark days Horan wonders if her children would be better off without her, but reasons that they would rather have a sad mother than no mother at all. One thing is for certain, Horan is a survivor and refuses to give in.
In Toasting Bread, Plath talks about how regret is something you must earn and asks Horan if she thinks she spends the seconds wondering what might have been if she hadn’t gone through with her suicide. Plath says she was too messy in the head and how that’s Horan’s issue as well. That the trick is to make them believe you didn’t die, to just obtain iconic status. The two are a kindred spirt, they learn and help each other to see past the black.
I give Just to the Right of the Stove By Elisabeth Horan a Four out of Five paw rating.
Overflowing with emotion and fire this collection will brew you a cup of the strong stuff. The back and forth between Plath and Horan flowed and helped me envision what these intense conversations must have felt like, should they have actually happened. Plath is a higher power, a famous tragedy that literature will always remember. Horan is a strength to be reckoned with within in her own right. Her poetry is brave and raw, standing naked for all to see. This is only a small peek into the darkness that consumes creative minds of the troubled, lost and saddened. There is still so much to uncover and learn. -
Yesterday, Isabelle Kenyon, contacted me to tell me about Elisabeth Horan's book inspired by Sylvia Plath, which explores links between writers, mothers, and mental health.
I was induced to sadness when the title, Just to the Right of the Stove, popped out at me. The title was definitely well thought out - noting the deeper meaning of this literary work released by Twist in Time Press of Philadelphia.
Isolation seemed prone to repeat itself throughout Plath's life's work as did ineffable self-appraisal. Overcome by profound hopelessness, it is plausible things became raw and exposed, deterring a catalyst for Plath's own healing. It's reported in the early morning hours of 1963, she frenzied to write as if the variables had an impact on survival time.
Fast forward fifty eight-years and Horan's versus flow and conjure images that are both abstract and real. In reading her words, defective & so alive, I witness an unsatisfied longing that's transitioning into belonging.
A vision of a lady entering a kitchen to utilize an untaught skill mixes with lines that have more than one interpretation. And, I sense that there is much left undone for Horan, as I turn the pages of Just to the Right of the Stove.
