In her newest book of poems, Snowflake/Different Streets (Wave Books, $20), Eileen Myles uses just the meat of her ideas and discards the rest. To ensure her meaning comes across without any frill, she provides the fewest words possible—almost every and has been replaced with &, with with w, and because with cause. Even the poems' format adheres to this stripped-down style. Myles writes in thin strips down the center of her pages, leaving the remainder of the page blank and ripe with questions.
Myles's creation is really two books in one, a Jekyll and Hyde collection. Snowflake (labeled "New Poems") goes first. Then, halfway through, the pages flip. The reader turns the book upside down to read Different Streets ("Newer Poems") and continues to drool.
Everything about Snowflake feels lonely...
(Keep reading.)
