Glassworks
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • masthead
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 22
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass spring 2021
    • interview with Jack Flo
    • interview with Christine Sloan Stoddard
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • through the looking glass
  • editorial content
    • book reviews
    • opinion
    • interviews >
      • Ed Briant
      • Eugene Cross
      • Josh Denslow
      • Christopher DeWan
      • Katherine Flannery Dering >
        • Aftermath
      • Eric Dyer
      • Julie Enszer >
        • Avowed
      • Mitchell Fink
      • Jack Flo
      • Olivia Gatwood
      • David Gerrold
      • Cynthia Graham
      • Ernest Hilbert
      • Paul Lisicky >
        • The Roofers
      • Scott McCloud
      • Jan Millsapps
      • Anis Mojgani
      • Pedram Navab
      • Kelly Norris
      • Porsha Olayiwola
      • Michael Pagdon
      • Aimee Parkison >
        • The Petals of Your Eyes
      • Brad Parks
      • Chris Rakunas
      • Carlos Ramos
      • Mary Salvante
      • Jill Smolowe
      • Christine Sloan Stoddard >
        • Stoddard Poems
      • Jayne Thompson
      • Julie Marie Wade
      • Melissa Wiley
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2021
    • flash glass 2020
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • photography
    • audio
    • video
    • new media
  • archive
    • read past issues
    • order print issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • newsletter

Review: Little Glass Planet

11/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Shatter Your World
Review: Little Glass Planet

Dina Folgia

Dobby Gibson
Poetry
Graywolf Press, pp. 80
Cost: $16

Glass. 
​

The word itself evokes fragility, as well as a certain sense of clarity. It’s easy to conjure the image of stained glass windows in a cathedral, or worn sea glass on the edge of a sprawling beach: both images clear, both images concrete. But what is really “clear” this day in age?

Dobby Gibson’s fourth collection of poetry, entitled Little Glass Planet, asks this very question.  ​
The collection starts off swinging, summoning passages that bring readers back to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The second and third poems, “Praying for November” and “Elegy for Abe Vigoda,” work hand-in-hand to provide a reminiscent look over the past few years under the Trump administration, going as far as to state: “The most horrible person / has been elected president.”
​

This is a drastic way to make a very clear point known in a very unclear world. In “Elegy for Abe Vigoda,” Gibson goes on to detail a normal day which presumably fell on the same day Trump was elected president, or the day after. He outlines how the world seemed to shatter for him, while everything else seemed to remain the same in his town. This was the case for many Americans, who had to learn to live in a world which did not change physically, but had undergone a massive internal shift. This poem perfectly captures the muddled feeling of unease which follows a major life change, and this change for Gibson happened to be political.

​The “glass” referenced in the title evokes a certain sense of fragility, which also harkens back to our current political climate. In politics, it is said that the only thing that keeps America’s democracy from falling apart completely is the peaceful transfer of power, and that transfer was rocky when Trump was elected president. America has gone through murky periods like this in the past—for example, with the election of George W. Bush—where it seemed uncertain if one side would ever cede to the other, and for it to happen with a figure such as Trump, it can create a massive polarization among people, worsening the voter divide. Nothing is clear, and nothing has 
been clear for the past few years, which makes the choice of “glass” all the more complex.


At many points it seems that the “planet” is America, a country which is going through an indisputable period of change. In “Fall In,” he writes a “love letter to the world.” He says, “Time is working against us / but it makes us love it more.” Here he is speaking to America as the member of a larger corrupt world which can still produce a lot of good. “Neoplatonism” is referenced in this piece, and one of the main principles of that philosophy lies within the idea of “the One,” which is essentially the source of everything. The fact that this is referenced specifically makes fragile America seem like a part of one amalgamated whole. This idea is ever-deepened by “Ode to the Future,” where Gibson goes from saying “Fuck this government” to “Fuck honey mustard / Fuck the new advanced whitening formula,” implying that America’s political plight isn’t the only awful thing that exists, and for some people the election of a self-absorbed orange egomaniac is about as catastrophic as some bad Crest strips.

​America is that fragile thing, situated in a fragile world. It is the glass planet, but it is also a part of the glass planet, and our everyday realities within these spheres can just as easily be shattered. Dobby Gibson’s ode to everyday life and the ways in which the modern world has shaped it is an inspired work of literature, filled to the brim with firm opinions, sweeping language, and moments of nostalgia that leave the reader longing to know how our little glass planet got here, and just how close it is to cracking.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    book reviews by glassworks editorial staff

     


    Archives

    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    March 2013
    December 2012


    Categories

    All
    Able Muse
    Abuse
    Agha Shahid Ali Prize
    Alfred A. Knopf
    Alternative Book Press
    Andrews McMeel Publishing
    Animals
    Anthea Bell
    Aqueous Books
    Art
    Ashland Creek Press
    Autumn House Press
    Bedazzled Ink Publishing
    Belleview Literary Press
    Bellevue
    Berlin Wall
    Black Lawrence Press
    Book Review
    Bottom Dog Press
    Brassbones And Rainbows
    Button Poetry
    Cake Train Press
    Catholic Guilt
    Chapbook
    Chris-rakunas
    Chronic Illness
    Coffee House Press
    Cold War
    Collection
    Coming Of Age
    Copper Canyon Press
    Divertir Publishing
    Drama
    Elroy Bode
    Ernest Hilbert
    Essays
    Eugen Ruge
    Fading Light
    Fairy Tales
    Family
    Farm
    Fat Dog Books
    Father
    Feminism
    Fiction
    Flash
    Furniture Press Books
    Future Tense Books
    Gdr
    Gender
    Geology
    Glassworks Book Review
    Gospel
    Greywolf Press
    Haiti
    Harbor Mountain Press
    Haute Surveillance
    Hepner
    Historical Fiction
    Holocaust
    Howling Bird Press
    Humor
    Identity
    Imagery
    Immigration
    Jacquline Doyle
    Jaded Ibis Press
    Johanne Goransson
    Journalism
    Jude Ezeilo
    Katya Apekina
    Language
    Lee L. Krecklow
    Lewis Hine
    LGBT
    Literature
    Lori Ann Stephens
    Memoir
    Mental Health
    #MeToo
    Midsummer Night's Press
    Midwest
    Milkweed Editions
    Mixed Media
    Modern Poetry
    Multi Genre
    Multi-genre
    Nature
    Nature Writing
    Nonfiction
    Novalee And The Spider Secret
    Novel
    Other Press
    Painting
    Poetry
    Poetry Prize
    Poetry Review
    Politics
    Press 53
    Prose Poetry
    Race
    Red Bird Chapbooks
    Red Hen Press
    Relationships
    Richard Siken
    Sarah Caulfield
    Sexuality
    Shechem Press
    Shirley Bradley Leflore
    Short Story
    Sickness
    Social Issues
    Son
    Sonnet
    Spine
    Spoken Word
    Steve Royek
    Stories
    Surveillance
    Susanne Dyckman
    Suspense
    Tarpaulin Sky
    Tears For The Mountian
    Tolsun Books
    Torrey House Press
    Tragedy
    Travel
    Twodollarradio
    University Of Utah Press
    University Press
    Unmitzer
    Unnamed Press
    Violence
    William Glassley
    Wings Press
    Winter Goose Publishing
    Women
    World War II

    RSS Feed

Picture

260 Victoria Street • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028 
glassworksmagazine@rowan.edu

All Content on this Site
(C) 2021 glassworks