two reviews of Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie

Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie has been reviewed by Anya Groner at The Rumpus and by Nick Sturm at Barn Owl Review.

Groner warns that the book is "oppressive," but adds that

[t]his harsh, post-industrial landscape is mitigated by gorgeous lyricism. Using a combination of prose poems and harshly enjambed verse, Harmon creates hypnotic rhythms and occasionally lapses into delightful sound play: “in lawful ground, last / leaf-lace, light of flat / screen.” The tension produced is tremendous. Harmon’s images paint Poughkeepsie as a sort of measured hell, while his lyricism betrays begrudged tenderness, an unwanted nostalgia.

Sturm, like Groner, puts the book "[i]n dialogue with Baudelaire, who was appalled by the intensification of the inhuman forces of modernization, especially by its effects on the poor," and adds that

Harmon is witness to the shocking aftereffects of what it means to forget that we are human, and that our ability to ruin the environment and ourselves can so easily escape our control. Through Harmon’s precise, charged enjambments and attention to syntax, these poems blur class, nature, language, technology, and the remnants of mercy into a post-pastoral fight for survival.

As ever, I am thrilled by such careful and generous readings.