THE YEAR OF THE INSTITUTION
THE YEAR OF THE INSTITUTION
by Desireé Dallagiacomo
PUBLISHED: 2013
SIZE: 8" x 5.5"
PRICE: $15
When NEXT LEFT PRESS met THE YEAR OF THE INSTITUTION, it was already a teenager in terms of poetry collections. Desireé had released it on her own in a beautifully-rendered edition with a nut & bolt binding bought from The Green Project in NOL & a block printed cover. Beautiful, yes. Beautiful and hard to produce. Before NEXT LEFT existed, Geoff Munsterman (that's me) provided a replicated version of the layout for a reprint. Desireé bought linen paper (NOTE TO POETS: don't use Southworth...there's a watermark on it that looks goofy as all get-out and it's more expensive) and designed her own cover. At the formation of NEXT LEFT, it seemed fitting to take this collection into our roster & give it a new life: combining the original edition's grunge with the patina-papered, easier-to-produce 2nd edition. Because this collection had already lived so many lives, Desireé agreed to let us experiment with the look & feel of the book–trying different bind methods, different folds & covers. In each edition, the press learned what worked & what didn't (a crooked cover design on a hand-cut book is a recipe for headache & disaster, as is using copper wire binding). In its 5th edition, the aged newsprint paper, deckle edging, and tight Japanese binding technique are clean & easy to read without being boring.
THE YEAR OF THE INSTITUTION is a collection built to last. So many of its poems are haunting in their honesty & sheer rawness of emotion that it can only be called capital-B Brave. One of the more well-known pieces, "One Side of an On-going Dialogue with Sharon, My Therapist" begins with a simple premise for talking about the complexities of human connection: "My father dropped out of high school. /I was the high school. /I might be as crazy as my father, Sharon." Sharon becomes a stand-in for the "Dear Diary" entry, the one-sided figure who listens & never responds. Even in the way which Dallagiacomo employs to talk about connection, the connection is a severing–Sharon listens, we assume, but offers nothing. It's all on the poet to address & persist through the abandonment that we as readers/listeners can only play voyeur to and, in our voyeurism, empathize or be heartbroken by. We too cannot help.
While THE YEAR OF THE INSTITUTION contains YouTube mainstays like "...Sharon", "and "I Break like a Fever", two poems that stick out are "Chapbook Titles, From My Nephews" and "Sasha Asks, 'What You Scared Of, Woman?'" with the first being a found poem lifted from Desireé's nephews. It's a light-hearted introduction to a book whose heart could crush a Volvo, affirming that poetry–even poetry that wouldn't be measured by your Auntie Julia as happy poems–has an effect of happiness that comes, I believe, in the releasing and sharing of hard-to-grapple emotions. It's the rarest of emotions to find a kinship in art–we can be moved by the creation, made to feel what might otherwise go un-felt–but to see in the art your own feelings reflected, to experience an untapped & otherwise unnamed portion of yourself rendered beautifully by someone describing their experiences is not part-and-parcel for everyday life. Dallagiacomo's work gives us plenty, but it certainly always give us that.
"Sasha Asks..." employs & elevates the well-worn list poem, opening with phobias personal to the poet & expanding to larger, universal fears: "I’m scared that I’m not beautiful." A lot of the poems work like this–a deceptively simple premise (the list, the dear diary-esque Sharon) sprawls into an unflinching & incredibly personal examination of gender, romance, family, & ultimately survival.
This is a book that lasts, no matter what it looks like. We at NEXT LEFT are happy to keep experimenting, to keep finding the right skin for this book as long as Desireé allows. We hope that any of y'all out there with early printings can appreciate that you "knew it way back when...."
You can purchase THE YEAR OF THE INSTITUTION or her other book DIMLY LIT directly from Desireé by clicking on the links up top.
WATCH DESIREÉ PERFORMING "ONE SIDE OF AN ON-GOING DIALOGUE..." BACK IN 2012.
THE YEAR OF THE INSTITUTION is a collection built to last. So many of its poems are haunting in their honesty & sheer rawness of emotion that it can only be called capital-B Brave. One of the more well-known pieces, "One Side of an On-going Dialogue with Sharon, My Therapist" begins with a simple premise for talking about the complexities of human connection: "My father dropped out of high school. /I was the high school. /I might be as crazy as my father, Sharon." Sharon becomes a stand-in for the "Dear Diary" entry, the one-sided figure who listens & never responds. Even in the way which Dallagiacomo employs to talk about connection, the connection is a severing–Sharon listens, we assume, but offers nothing. It's all on the poet to address & persist through the abandonment that we as readers/listeners can only play voyeur to and, in our voyeurism, empathize or be heartbroken by. We too cannot help.
While THE YEAR OF THE INSTITUTION contains YouTube mainstays like "...Sharon", "and "I Break like a Fever", two poems that stick out are "Chapbook Titles, From My Nephews" and "Sasha Asks, 'What You Scared Of, Woman?'" with the first being a found poem lifted from Desireé's nephews. It's a light-hearted introduction to a book whose heart could crush a Volvo, affirming that poetry–even poetry that wouldn't be measured by your Auntie Julia as happy poems–has an effect of happiness that comes, I believe, in the releasing and sharing of hard-to-grapple emotions. It's the rarest of emotions to find a kinship in art–we can be moved by the creation, made to feel what might otherwise go un-felt–but to see in the art your own feelings reflected, to experience an untapped & otherwise unnamed portion of yourself rendered beautifully by someone describing their experiences is not part-and-parcel for everyday life. Dallagiacomo's work gives us plenty, but it certainly always give us that.
"Sasha Asks..." employs & elevates the well-worn list poem, opening with phobias personal to the poet & expanding to larger, universal fears: "I’m scared that I’m not beautiful." A lot of the poems work like this–a deceptively simple premise (the list, the dear diary-esque Sharon) sprawls into an unflinching & incredibly personal examination of gender, romance, family, & ultimately survival.
This is a book that lasts, no matter what it looks like. We at NEXT LEFT are happy to keep experimenting, to keep finding the right skin for this book as long as Desireé allows. We hope that any of y'all out there with early printings can appreciate that you "knew it way back when...."
You can purchase THE YEAR OF THE INSTITUTION or her other book DIMLY LIT directly from Desireé by clicking on the links up top.
WATCH DESIREÉ PERFORMING "ONE SIDE OF AN ON-GOING DIALOGUE..." BACK IN 2012.