POETRY COLLECTION REVIEW: “BLACK APERTURE” BY MATT RASMUSSEN

Today I want to take a look at one of my favorite books of contemporary poetry that I have in my library. And that is “Black Aperture” by Matt Rasmussen.

When I got this book almost ten years ago I enjoyed it, but I had to adjust to Matt Rasmussen’s minimalistic style. Up until that point, I consumed mostly spoken word and narrative poetry. As a result, I read through these poems faster out of habit. That did the poems a disservice. I’ll admit it – my tastes weren’t as refined and diversified back then until I started reading a larger variety of poetry on the page and expanding my horizons.

When I started to slow down my reading, I started to discover the hidden facets of each poem. I started sinking into each line. They were chock-full of imagery. Each poem had the charge of a bottle of lightning.

One of the first things that stood out to me when I read this collection was how economical Rasmussen is with his word choices. There was such restraint and control with every word. I could tell that each word choice was questioned and there was a meticulous revision process with each poem. If someone asked me to recommend a poetry collection that exhibits power in simplicity, this book would be the first one that comes to mind.

Secondly, the pacing of each of the poems is timed perfectly with the chosen line breaks. One gets the feeling that they are reading the poem precisely as intended which can’t be said with works that haven’t been pared down enough. As a result, every handful of words in his poems can almost stand on their own to elicit a vivid image or a palpable feeling. 

For example:

“A hole is nothing

but what is left around it.”

On the surface - maybe upon first read - this comes across as an obvious statement. But when you provide the context of the title and, furthermore, the theme of the whole book being about his brothers suicide, it carries a new weight. It’s worth a double-take. His brother is the hole, and this book, along with his family’s despair, is the aftermath. These first two lines serve as a great hook to pull you right into the poem and stay for the punch at the end.

Almost every poem is comprised of a series of two-line stanzas. Each page has a lot of negative space which makes you focus in on the poem with greater clarity rather than something that spans margin to margin, rambling on and on.

Another thing that I really liked about this book is the way that Rasmussen plays with perspectives. Personification is one of the predominant literary devices that he uses. There is often a diatribe between inanimate, or at least inhuman, things which provides an interesting perspective. Matt also uses both third person and first person perspectives throughout the works which really opens up different narrative possibilities as well. Sometimes he is directly addressing his brother as himself; Other times it feels as if you are watching his brother as if you, the observer, are the ghost walking through the compartment walls of memories. Alas, it feels as if you are experiencing the scenes as if they were captured through a carefully calibrated aperture (a black aperture, precisely aimed by the poet, if you will.)

Additionally, Rasmussen uses a lot of nature-based imagery as the vehicle for metaphor. Normally, this isn’t exactly my jam, de spite my love for being out in nature. I don’t usually go for transcendental themes because, frankly, the poets that I was exposed to in core literature classes bored me into ADHD dissociations. But with Rasmussen, it just works. Perhaps it is because they are symbolic vessels being used to communicate something different entirely: a familial suicide and how to process it. It works for me. But I also tend to love things in contrasting juxtaposition, like foods that are sweet and salty, and music like Third Eye Blind, where it sounds happy but the content is utterly abject.

In closing, there’s certainly a reason that this book was the winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets. No doubt, it’s for the same reasons it was a National Book Award Finalist.

This collection speaks to me. It really does. And if you are the type of person that really likes to savor their poems slowly and are open to the themes of death and grief, this is a no brainer. I can’t extol it enough. Every time I read this I get something new out of it. I have no doubt that the same magic will be bestowed upon you. Go read it. You won’t be sorry.