Magicholia by Jenny Grassl – a review by Shannon Vare Christine


A poetry book rarely takes on a physically larger format, let alone philosophically embodies such a vast series of collected poems. Somehow Jenny Grassl achieves these two feats in her book Magicholia. Grassl, also a visual artist, designed the Woodcut/Illustration which adorns the cover and likewise serves as a fitting introduction to her work. The scene of a kneeling woman, a staring lion, tumbled letters, two swimming koi fish, and a large bird with human hands aptly foreshadows the story about to unfold. While these figures can be interpreted symbolically, they can also be visual representations of the multitude of speakers and voices the reader is about to encounter. Stylistically, this illustration and the ones included as chapter title pages, are reminiscent of scenes depicted on Grecian urns and ancient relics. These artifacts showcase mythological narratives and important life events and also serve as a record of the tales told around the proverbial fire. This nod to recording oral tradition is similarly reflected in Magicholia, with mythic feminist narratives imbued with allusions to pop culture, modern moments, and current events. 

This spark between the mythic and modern is ignited by the use of verbs like “sprouten, reeken, and creepen,” all of which create a distinct style and voice echoing epics and ballads of long ago. This well-established tradition is also spotlighted in Grasl’s usage of line breaks as end punctuation. The cyclical nature of storytelling, as well as the recurring plight of women, are emphasized by this lack of visual endpoints on the page. These poems are meant to be read aloud to fully appreciate the precise, rhythmic, alliterative, vibrant word choices that bounce off the tongue into the air. This sharp precision can be found in such lines as: “dumped where vultures wing slant / peck in polyester looking for meat / talons tearing buttonholes    portals to saints.” Additionally, the majority of the poems in this book are not afraid to take up space, as they are expansive and sprawling, sometimes inhabiting several pages. There are large sections of white space on the page, which compels the reader to closely consider each word, line, and scene. Perhaps this layout choice is an extended metaphor to convey women’s desire to occupy prominent places of security and status in society and culture. However, the size of the book is also of similar dimensions to that of a volume of fairytales. 

The feminist fairytale protagonists, as speakers in several poems, battle societal, familial, and relational expectations thrust upon them. While the original counterparts to these reimagined characters had a more singular focus of salvation at the hands of male princes, the modern speakers are still railing against stereotypical belief systems. Lines such as: “my mother would have fed me prince and silence;” “with / lipstick berries in the snow I try.../ to speak the lie —I am warm;” and “my sisters speak the toads of truth / of course I am cold you fool — / and of course they die” reveal women’s constant struggles to be heard and valued. There is a price to be paid for bold assertions. The speaker dons her makeup as warpaint and weapon, as she attempts to chip away at and break down generational patterns of gendered behavior. Historically, women have been told what to think and how to behave both in explicit and implicit manners. The speaker here beckons women to take off their masks of pretend, to “broadcast fire    spells along limbs...how easily I facet an infinite.” 

The speaker also takes the form of a woman consoling a dying planet, while reckoning with her own body as a “dying planet” of sorts. She is disrobing herself of societal beauty standards, while the Earth is “wild-eyed after wildfire.” In another instance, the speaker laments: “my crow craw hair ravenous / gone avalanche gray” and then she reflects on: “every season of burnish flouncing away / to disenchant for a cycle of the sun.” Whether her influence has the cascading energy and effect of an avalanche is yet to be seen. For now, she is in tune with the natural rhythms of the flora and fauna, the celestial bodies and their travel, as well as the climate in crisis. Their actions and habits contrast and connect to those of the speakers, within these carefully organized narratives. While nature is in a constant state of flux and upheaval, the characters in Magicholia are redefining themselves and transforming their roles and abilities. These tales return again and again to the magical, mythical, and mystical elements that underlie and coexist with all life on this planet. With these cycles “each apocalypse to a genesis” unfolds, which is somehow simultaneously reassuring and equally terrifying.