Review by Rachel Lutwick-Deaner
Flu Season is Katie Kalisz’s second poetry collection, following Quiet Woman (2019) and those readers who appreciate her previous attention to the stillness and sweetness of life will not be disappointed. Flu Season examines the uncertainty and, often, dread that characterizes motherhood and life in fragile times. This text is not only about the pandemic, but it looks at life and death in many forms–from the natural world to family, neighbors, and friends to anticipation of what deaths may come.
The arc of the collection mirrors prodrome, illness, and recovery: Getting Warm, Dread, Red Circles, Strong Medicine, Hush Now. Each section gleams with life’s intimacies: nibbling a star shaped biscuit; giving haircuts on the back deck; gazing at a beloved from the pool deck, but interspersed in these delicious moments are the fears that keep our jaws set: global pandemic, refugees, a neighbor dying of cancer, anticipatory loss.
Kalisz’s collection features a variety of forms, from the abecedarian to ekphrastic verse; however, her work shines most in the list. Companion pieces “What Rises” and “What Falls” are breathtaking examples of the power of her verse. “What Rises” begins with exuberance, listing “the sun” and “a bluebird’s orange belly,” yet it ends with
my son
into a Norway spruce,
the river to meet the bank,
masks to overtake faces,
the death toll.
And at last,
the white moon,
Surrendering. (34)
Likewise, “What Falls” spans the gamut of the domestic and global sphere, concluding with the lines
Children, from bikes and skateboards
skinning elbows and knees. Laundry
from the line. Demand for energy.
Carbon emissions. Glass from shattered
windows. Stars for the wishers. Finally,
the rate of new cases, and so
the time we have only together. (45)
These lists are not only beautiful envelopes for content, but they serve the arc of the book–what do we do to get through our days? We check things off of our lists. What are the ways I will miss my friend? Here is the list…
We have so much to fear and, likewise, so much to love, and Kalisz’s collection captures these sentiments with authenticity and a keen eye for how we are connected by generations of love and loss. In conversation are the poems “Mom Was Afraid to Plan Dad’s Retirement Party Because When She Planned Her Own Father’s Retirement Party it Became a Wake” (the title explains the meaning) and “Before the After” in which the poet imagines the eventual passing of her husband. Similarly, “Dread” explores the craft of cultivating our fears and “Warning” the dangers of living in the world. “Bunker” succinctly and beautifully pulls together the love and dread of being a mother. Upon discovering that the children have dug an underground bunker, the poet asks, “Are they already/ better at saving their lives than I am?” (32).
Having read this collection now multiple times, it may surprise other readers to know that I find myself going back to the image of lace. While only three poems use this image, it is emblematic of Kalisz’s fine verse and her clear-eyed poetic sensibility. Beyond the page, Kalisz is a writing professor, and within this collection she teaches her readers to read like poets themselves. For instance in “October Windstorm,” Kalisz writes,
“Thin shouldered, the house shudders/while darkness outside cloaks the bricks/ in a lace shawl” (8).What wonderful work Kalisz asks us to do here, as we must imagine that small bit of moonshine through the tree branches that allows the darkness to cover the bricks in that “lace shawl.” Later in the collection, in “Filleting a Fried Trout (ars poetica)” we are instructed
Lift the delicate tail, like a petal, like lace,
carefully, carefully, just enough so that
each fine fish bone slips singularly away from
the bottom fillet. (53)
The mundane can be sublime, as this poem teaches us to see the artistry in our crispy dinner, the fine details in bones and skin.
Inside this collection lies the whole world. The poet is the lover, proclaiming in “Anniversary Poem,” “Be my hide, while I burrow /Further into your/ Warm life” (7) and also the sage, as in the final poem “Hush Now,” as she comforted the reader, and herself, to be content; she is the mother, the daughter, the friend, the woman, the writer. Readers will return to the poet, and this collection, to be awakened and consoled again and again.
Flu Season by Katie Kalisz
Cornerstone Press
Pub Date: April 2025
Pages: 100 Price: U.S. $21.95 / Trade Paper
ISBN: 9781960329882
Rachel Lutwick-Deaner enjoys a bookish life. She has earned degrees from Colgate University, North Carolina State University, and Queens University of Charlotte. Currently, Rachel teaches writing and literature at Grand Rapids Community College. Rachel’s recent publications can be found at Story Sanctum, Chaotic Merge, and Door=Jar. Rachel’s essay “Nursing Mother” was selected for the 2024 Story Sanctum Editors’ Choice Award for Best Nonfiction. You can find her on Instagram @professor.ld.