That’s the very nature of Saturn, by Michy Woodward
Published by Bottlecap Press
Review by Ellen Miller-Mack
Welcome, Michy Woodward, on behalf of women poets from the ‘70s who wrote poems about their lives and sexualities with honesty and clarity. The energy of That’s the very nature of Saturn got me thinking about a poem by Pat Parker (1944-1989) titled “For Willyce” and the poetry of feminist poets Diane Wakoski (b. 1937) and Alta (1942-2024).
The chapbook opens with “We used to be a society,” a litany of well-crafted arrows aimed at Tesla, Ozempic (“America’s least politicized needle”), and targeted direct-to-consumer botox ads, interspersed organically with ideas that are more interior, serving the poem with moments of acute self-awareness and wry humor, stating, for example, that lesbian dating is so fraught with “… the fallacy of the top shortage [it’s] as if I don’t exist.”
There are many deft leaps and delightful surprises in this collection. The poems are trustworthy and left me wanting to know where they were going. In both “monday and then tuesday” and “it’s 2 am on a Wednesday,” I catch a whiff of Joanne Kyger (1934-2017) who wrote wonderfully quotidian poems that may appear at first to be journal entries. Woodward offers a kindred poem beginning with “and I don’t have health insurance/but I feel lucky to be alive “ and ending with,
kissing the morning with laziness
the gorgeous possibilities
of tomorrow
which is already today.
I am enchanted by “your blue subaru,” a tender love poem in which Subaru rhymes with (the singer) Erykah Badu. It’s a small poem, nine short lines, beautifully crafted.
Woodward’s poem “hot girls” appears in the June 2024 issue of Lavender Review. It led me, with great enthusiasm, to this chapbook. In “hot girls,” Woodward laments “ i just keep trusting hot girls who are hot enough to make me trust them.” The hot girls are ravishing and ravaging stand-ins for the perils of love and lust. This poem is expansive, honest and funny, the kind of funny where you know the goddesses are laughing at you so you have to laugh along. It’s a love poem to our susceptible selves. It’s also a young lesbian poem. I wonder if young lesbians would be surprised to know that the longing, lust, love, and desire dip into unrequitedness and even kaleidoscopic sex as they grow older. Lesbian or not, follow Michy Woodward; she is a talented and sure-footed poet.
Curator’s note: Ellen Miller-Mack compares Woodward’s poems with past work of important lesbian and feminist poets. You may not have heard of these poets, and links are included to encourage you to check out their work. –Risa Denenberg
Michy Woodward (she/her) is a queer, mixed-race, Asian American Brooklyn-based writer and artist from Miami. She loves exploring intimacy, sensation, and the relationship between interiority/exteriority through her writing. Her work largely indulges in the softness of everyday life. Her poetry has been published in Bullshit Lit, Queerlings, Lavender Review, Roi Faineant Press, Silly Goose and The Amazine. You can find her on instagram @michywoodward. She loves Sundays, her cat Kimi, and being near bodies of water.
That’s the very nature of Saturn
Michy Woodward
Bottlecap Press, 24 pages, $10
Ellen Miller-Mack is a poet, nurse practitioner, & blues lover. “Hot Tamale Blues” can be heard Tuesday afternoons at WMUA 91.1 FM (www.wmua.org) Ellen has an MFA in Poetry from Drew University. Her reviews and poems can be found in Lavender Review, Lily Review, Rattle, Rumpus, MER, Affilia, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and others. She co-authored The Real Cost of Prisons (PM Press). She co-hosts “Poet Talk” which is broadcast live from WMUA on Thursday evenings . “Poet Talk” is also a podcast on Spotify. Ellen lives in Western Massachusetts.
Risa Denenberg is the curator at The Poetry Cafe Online.
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