McHugh, Heather: Muddy Matterhorn

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Copper Canyon Press (paperback, 05/26/2020)

Heather McHughsMuddy Matterhornrelinquishes [full stop]. As in, yes, an intransitive verb, no receptive object in sightthe makings of a peculiar sentence, an incomplete thought perhaps. This is a collection of adjustments refusing simple closures. It assumes we all know theres an end, sure, yet revels in the shared incomprehension of itthe spirit and where it goes ordoesntgo. As elegy and as loss becomes hypervisible off the page, coming up against McHughs lines both soothes and re-energizes me.

Now, Im attuned to lifes lilt and tilt, the lingering stuff. Now, Im inclined to stay with and gaze into the cosmic trapped in the skies, trapped in a beloveds eyes. Her quintessential stubbornness to not look away is present in every poem. Whether its staring at a glove, watching a dying dog, or a winding through self-reflection before bed, McHugh in these poems, manages to peacock her way through an unending utility for language. Her language is so honed, so refined yet, also, v loose as a goosegoing into slang, coming out of metered rhyme…

In talking about McHugh poems, folks often remark about her blending of the high with the low. I had trouble tracking that sense here. More accurately, perhaps the high is instead a certain brand of hubris and humor. The low, an instinct toward adoration and casual encounters.Muddy Matterhorn, in all the ways to celebrate and lament the lives of humans, is somewhat of an orchestra at wits end, both menacing and playful. No, thats not quite right eitherMuddy Matterhorn, not the conductors high-handed stick, but the measuring foot and its tap-tap at the front of an utterly sincere and powerful song.

How changed I am after having read about her unique take on tactility. How charmed I am, having been made privy to a sense of touch I have no expression for other than what Ive seen in these immense poems. The gifts of having memorized the eyes of a long life, holding the last grips before a last breath, beholding the strangeness of a stranger with reverenceall gifts with unique consequences. I love this book because you just cant encounter poems like these anywhere else.Muddy Matterhorntakes nothing for granted.

–Jeric Smith