Acclaimed author Rae Armantrout's remarkable new collection Safe Rooms, explores the undercurrents of modern life with an unflinching eye on human nature, social malaise, and the unsettling ways in which we attempt to protect ourselves from a world that continually undermines our sense of safety. As the title poem says: "your thoughts /roar and echo//around youāoriginating/god knows where.// You try to plug your ears/but you are an ear/ that can't stop listening." Through poems that examine our darker impulsesāour tendencies to self-destruct, to grapple with envy, and to navigate the intricate web of family dynamicsāArmantrout captures the complex, often contradictory ways in which we search for meaning and connection. Her work holds a mirror to the forces shaping us, both intimate and vast, showing that the so-called "safe rooms" we construct are fragile, temporary shelters, not havens from the chaos that surrounds us.
[sample poem]
THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā 1
An atom "is localized
by an interaction"
the way you surprise yourself
by expressing an opinion
when asked,
one you didn't know you had
and may not hold
for long.
Ā
Ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā 2
Ā
A subatomic particle is not
its mass or spin
Ā
the way a person
is not a body
Ā
and a poem is not
what it says.