Reviewed by Kathleen Bednarek
In The Thaw of Day
by Cynthia Good
Finishing Line Press
October 2024, Paperback, 80 pages, ISBN-13: 979-8888386309
In The Thaw of Day, the latest book of poems by Cynthia Good, is an endearing collection, one conjured from the poet’s traumas, memories, and various meditations on nature, and in many ways is a continuation of themes from Good’s previous book, What We Do with Our Hands (Finishing Line Press, 2022).
In The Thaw of Day offers a depth of moments illuminating Good’s day to day life, often referring back to her family. The character, physicality and habits of her father appear across multiple poems in the collection.
My father kept a sepia tone photo, he and his father,
their fingers intertwined around lines hookedwith bleeding fish, my father’s chest thrust out,
chin up, his shoulders against his father’s waist,smiling like the horizon. (From “My Father’s Father”)
Similarly, in the poem, “Theory of Object Permanence,” Good explores the concept of memory through a photograph and also through one of her mother’s paintings, a painting Good’s mother actually created. Using a staccato rhythm with a pattern of repetition there is a sense of bewilderment at the passage of time as Good alludes to her mother’s art:
The painting tells me
my mother is dead, my mother,
the painter, is dead and so are the lovers
in her painting, the pink curled
limbs spilling around one another.
Through succinct lines like these, In The Thaw of Day has a palpable compression. Engaging images and biographical details adjust from these photographic type visuals scaling into deeper investigations of loss. I noticed the poems locked into a trusted pattern creating a clear linearity to the book. Good’s vivid and singular details, like these lines speaking to the poet’s isolation support a connection to the poet as person:
I understand invisible, like when I was married,
and now I am again, or trying to be. If I saw
the renters, I’d duck. I eat bananaswith milk and Raisin Bran all day
since going to the market would be noisy. (From “Cabo San Lucas, Independence Day”)
In The Thaw of Day handles some heavy topics such as marital abuse, death and grief. We see the fishing expeditions with the poet and her father, the joy of the catch and the perspective of the fish as it struggles, and we witness poems where we know Good has struggled for her own independence and wellbeing.
Good’s poems catch and return with these moments of praise and gratitude balancing the tension with hard-fought lessons and observations of resiliency from the natural world. Her poetry combines language that is intensifying and evocative, like a personal diary, with the immediacy of a scrapbook. And it’s this personal baring open and honesty that lingers on making In The Thaw of Day a dynamic collection.