Cathryn Hankla’s Phenomena, Poems (1983), her debut collection written at age 23, explores elusive and surreal experiences—what she calls “phenomena”—through richly layered, non-narrative poems. Relying on rhythm, internal rhyme, and dense imagery drawn from nature, the poems evoke themes of epiphany, memory, love, violence, and transformation. Hankla’s maximalist style invites close reading, as her work deliberately resists clarity to reflect the complexity of perception and emotion. From chaotic epiphanies to unsettling meditations on death and desire, the collection reveals a poetic voice deeply attuned to both the beautiful and brutal in the world.
0