Winter in Fargo
Rodney Nelson’s poetry collection, Fargo in Winter, took second place in the 2013 Cathlamet Prize competition.
Writer and editor Joel Van Valin found that Nelson’s poems felt “as though they were written in a strange, magical language” that could “only be roughly translated to English.”
think of sun in window
and room the page of it coming
up
but not another
a next
Reviews
Rodney Nelson only uses English as a template because these poems are in a whole new language. Today's book of poetry was in after about three poems, hooked by the simple beauty of Nelson's accomplishment. Winter in Fargo is all about place and Nelson takes us all firmly to Fargo.
Winter has never quite been like this before. Winter in Fargo dials into a collective unconscious where we are comfortable with Nelson's unique vision. The reader transported, lulls and rolls onto the crisp white landscape, and discovers it ripe with new mystery.
Winter in Fargo is strong and slow, almost languorous, so Today's book of poetry is thinking Keith Jarrett, The Köln Concert. Slow and languorous until the all consuming sweep of it blows over you like a snow squall.Rodney Nelson has his own smooth. These poems had instant cred here in the Today's book of poetry offices. Milo, our head tech, said it felt like Cormac McCarthy without the obvious violence. Kathryn, our Jr. Editor, thought Nelson's Winter in Fargo reminded her of the thickly layered canvases of London artist Ron Martin.
Rodney Nelson's embrace of the natural world, his intimate interaction with the world he names still doesn't hide his history, he has seen violence, the horrors men can inflict on other men. Yet Winter in Fargo is a celebration of a particular physical geography/and an exploration of the language of the prairie. Winter in Fargo is wildly entertaining restraint of the first order.
Michael Dennis