Sit How You Want

Power and sex take centre stage in Robin Richardson’s formidable third collection, Sit How You Want . Plane crashes and automobile mishaps are the backdrop for female narrators who grapple with terror, anxiety, and powerlessness: When I say I’m fine I mean the sky has opened / like an old wound under scurvy. In their grim wit, sinister straight talk, and sometimes violent bawdiness, Richardson’s poems work as counter-charms against the lingering trauma of abusive relationships, both familial and romantic. The book embodies a belief in poetry as an instrument of change, a tool for transforming pain into exuberant verbal energy: It is the thrill of ruination / makes us innovate.