Permeable Divide Ellen Rachlin
The human condition in thirty-eight poems of loss and insight.
five stars
A star count is only one person’s rating of a work. So, as always, do not let my star count override your judgement of content. More on the stars, counting, and my rating challenges later. Let’s get to the good stuff.
Rachlin will catch your attention in the very first poem, Possessions, where we find this: “He leans in to gather tissues marked with tears, /containers unburdened of their freight, /loved but fallen stroller toys, tickets slipped from shallow pockets, /and.....”
Rachlin is moored in the real world, as we find in Supernovae: “Theory cannot be tangible fact /like driving on I-95 to get to a lecture...”
For nostalgia, turn to Preserve. This short poem can’t be conveyed in a simple quote.
For a personal intergenerational experience, turn to The Car Argument: “with only her intent firm...”
Rachlin captures the interpersonal in The Trouble With Advice: “But how long do we have until we uncover / the risk of losing one another....”
While I am allergic to writing about writing, Rachlin has given us a fine exception in Business Page, which ends thus: “And the price is no different /for a bad poem than /for a great one, unlike meals, /although the cost may be higher.”
The human condition (for females at least) is captured in Myself, where we find these two quotes: “When I look /right away I adjust my hair /which doesn’t stay still,” and “I cannot see myself /for all these interruptions.”
For a fascinating insight into some women ‘friends’ turn to The Group. It’s too tough to give you the feel for this in a small quote. Buy the book and turn to this page.
For a final heartbreak, turn to the title poem, Permeable Divide. This poem will reward rereading.
Now for my star count boilerplate. My personal guidelines, when doing any review, are as follows: five stars means, roughly equal to best in genre. Rarely given. Four stars means, extremely good. Three stars means, definitely recommendable. I am a tough reviewer. I try hard to be consistent. Five stars feels just right to this reviewer. Extremely recommended.

Permeable Divide provides Ellen Rachlin's fourth volume of poetry and blends it with a philosophical observational style that is elegant in expression and rich in description and psychological insight. Take, for one example, the unexpected depth of 'Families': "Those slack wire acts that balance/by focusing near, love the sloped wire./First, there are the shakes of contorting bodies/then the hold while they juggle troubled kin/in each outstretched hand."

Readers are invited to reflect on various incarnations of what Rachlin describes as the "permeable divide", which consists of the gap between the living and a loved one lost to death, the rift between art and business, or the breaks that limit freedom and result in revolutions that may based be as much experiences of the past as the present.

Each poem is so different that this collection requires slow, careful, contemplative thought before realization sets in that each poem is actually interconnected, in a much broader sense. 'Divide', for example, also explores change, loss, and being lost in a different sense than 'Families' offered - yet, in a familiar way: "There is nothing to change/if you fit in/but that's the catch./To go from shore to mountaintop/you must adjust./The mind won't let go."

Permeable Divide captures confrontations with self, evolving efforts to change and grow, and how gaps are bridged or widened between life, death, and daily affairs in a succinct yet absorbing collection of images and ideas that requires slow, thoughtful reading from free verse fans and rewards these efforts with rich insights that linger in the mind long after the last poem is read. ( )