What We’re Reading: A Pound of Steam

A Pound of Steam by Dessa (Rain Taxi, 2013)

It’s no secret that here at Hazel & Wren we’re fans of Dessa. We spoke with her two years ago about her writing and reviewed her book Spiral Bound (2009) and short story “Sleeping With Nikki,” both from Doomtree’s press wing. Since then, she’s released a critically acclaimed album called Parts of Speech that has cemented her as rapper who has a true love of language and literature. Which is to say, it came as no surprise when Rain Taxi released her new chapbook, A Pound of Steam, earlier this year.

For those who have followed Dessa’s career and the varied writing she has done, it’s rather fascinating to see the way she compartmentalizes ideas and separates narrative types into different modes. These poems are contemplative and focus on the small details of their subjects. “Saya” wonders, for instance, whether a robot designed to teach schoolchildren “[…] sees in color— / maybe it’s just heat and motion […].”

I wonder if the children are free to touch her

and if they are

I wonder if she can feel it.

The minutia explored works well on the page where the content isn’t restricted by the constraints of a pop song.

A Pound of Steam is also free of constraints such as strict rhyme to the point that you can almost hear Dessa straining against that impulse. Oddly, this tension means that a musical throb underlies the poems, though she has freed herself of rap’s heavy meter also. The rhythm of these poems is subtler; an interplay between word choice and word order.

But our last long winter

washed the color from her face.

Now she cannot be induced to blush

for shame or love or fever.

—“The Clown’s New Wife”

There’s a slant rhyme here of winter/color/fever and some lovely consonance in washed, she, blush, and shame all of which seems to come from years of writing rap lyrics. While these poems don’t have the bombast of rap, they do ask to be read aloud.

Thematically, A Pound of Steam is satisfyingly cohesive, with naming and self-creation as central points that explore how these characters move through the world. The opening poem, “Dear Sir or Madam,” begins, “We changed your name while you were sleeping […]” and the following poem, “The Letter S.”, opens, “By the time that I arrived / you could not say my name […].” Even when names aren’t at the fore, invented or imagined self becomes the theme, as in “Kept Company” about an imaginary friend created by a young girl. The idea of self-creation, either through a name or a willful act of imagining, is an interesting concept from a writer who has spent much of her creative life in the public eye.

A Pound of Steam is a strong outing from Dessa who has been publicly finding her voice for the last several years, both as a writer and a musician. Every new project she releases is a little stronger than the last, a little more realized. She continues to challenge herself and her audience to branch out beyond the expected, and the results thus far have been stunning.

What other artists work in multiple genres and forms successfully?