Book Reviews

review of BJ Buckley's In January the Geese

Review of BJ Buckley In January, the Geese

BJ Buckley In January the Geese

There are 26 poems in this book. The poems are based on the author’s lived experience growing up on a farm in rural Wyoming and Montana. A number of the poems are written from the animal’s point of view. For example, In January the geese, first bear, long division. box with bugs, night herding, pronghorn elegy, rescue last rites.

the poems are:


1. Upthrust
2. in January, the geese
3. first bear
4. long division
5. gates
6. C store 5:00 AM
7. fields
8. burn pile
9. Sunriver
10. slamming
11. hard frost
12. seed
13. on Sunday morning
14. box with bugs
15. Watchman
16. Funeral
17. night herding
18. Instrument
19. almost July
20. instrument
21. pronghorn Elegy
22. rescue
23. towards evening Teton river
24. infinite haze
25. September
26. bad shot
27. last rites
comments on each poem

Upthrust

discusses finding in the spring the dead bodies of animals who did not survive the harsh winter weather and their bodies are thrust up with the melting snow.
in January, the geese
discussed the geese returning earlier than expected due to global warming's
first bear
Discusses seeing the first bears in the Springtime as they leave their hibernation dens and roam the forest hungry.
long division
discusses the barn cats waking up after a cold night
gates
discusses rounding up the cattle and putting them in the gates for the winter.
Thaw
prose poem discusses finding a dead pronghorn stuck in a fence after a cold spell.

C store 5:00 AM
the farm workers gather together at the general store for coffee and donuts at 5 am before going to do their morning farming chores,
fields
The prose poem discussed preparing the fields in the early spring.
burn pile
discusses burning the fields in the late autumn.

Sunriver
two old men gather to go fishing at Sun River. Both of their wives are long gone.

hard frost
the sheep barely survive the winter.
seed
about the miracle of the common seed

best line

“Isn’t every God God of grain?
Isn’t every sacrament beer and bread?

on Sunday morning

Ode to the various birds found on the ranch

Boxelder bugs
Ode to the simple boxelder bugs

Watchman
Ode to the horned owl standing guard over the fields.

Funeral
Prose poem gathering together for the funeral of one of the farm workers who died too soon.
night herding

Prose poem on reflections on animals that did not survive the harsh weather.

At Twilight
watching the birds at twilight
almost July
three verses about late June thinking about the wild animals in the field, including birds (verse one) the foxes and coyotes (verse two), and the flowers in the field (verse three)
instrument
a prose poem elegy for a farm worker who died.
pronghorn Elegy
on elegy based on Rilke’s Elegy Number 8 about the pronghorn antelopes who died in the field when they could not jump the fence due to old age

rescue
Prose poem on finding a dead longhorn in the field who had fallen and injured himself.

towards evening Teton river

looking at the insects of late autumn and the birds along the Teton River,

Infinite Haze, September

discusses the wildfires that blackened the sky in September

bad shot
a prose poem about finding a dead pronghorn in the field.

last rites
Last rites for the animals that did not survive the winter


for more info see the following analysis by Bing AI.

According to Pine Row Press, In January the Geese is a collection of poems by B.J. Buckley, who is a Montana poet and writer. The book won the Comstock Review’s 35th Anniversary Chapbook Contest in 20221. The poems are grounded in rural Montana and Wyoming, and share a world unfamiliar to many, through language that is at once muscular and tender1. The poet’s website2 shows some examples of her poetry, which often explore themes of nature, spirituality, and human relationships.
• The poem is written in free verse, meaning it does not follow a regular pattern of rhyme or rhythm.
• The poem uses imagery, which is the use of descriptive language to create vivid pictures in the reader’s mind. For example, “the first wet heavy snow, which was rain first, slick and silver-weighted in the needles of pine” or “flurries of the chickadee, dun pools of a sparrow.”
• The poem uses metaphor, which is the comparison of two unlike things without using the words “like” or “as.” For example, “the evening sweatered itself in the wool of clouds” or “the star-cracked compass of the sky.”
• The poem uses alliteration, which is the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words that are close together. For example, “wet heavy snow” or “flurries of chickadee.”
• The poem uses personification, which is the attribution of human qualities to non-human things. For example, “the evening sweatered itself” or “the wild geese, whose choral colloquy.”
• The poem uses contrast, which is the juxtaposition of opposite or different ideas or images. For example, “the months in hours” or “Winter, whispering – though it isn’t yet.”
meter analysis of each of these poems
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breaking down into animal poems
and the rest