Mz N: the serial: A Poem-in-Episodes

National Book Award finalist McLane (This Blue) writes formally interesting poetry that's also in-the-world entertaining enough to kick back with on a Friday night. Using notably reined-in lines that up the energy, her propulsive new work offers a portrait of the questing Mz N. Here's a woman making her way, recalling mocked childhood (she determines to write "what she hopes will be/ a masterpiece: Mispronunciation:/ the definitive/ autobiography") and working on her cool ("Mz N tries/ each day very hard/ to be contemporary"). As she makes life's identifiable stumbling blocks wholly her own, Mz N bravely reveals both tentativeness and strong opinions, and her narrative ends as a sort of love song to the beloved and to sexuality itself ("Desire/ is not a thing/ it is an irresistible humming vibrating/ through the body"). It's one big, rich rush and an amazing sled ride down the page.