Seattle-born poet Joshua Marie Wilkinson’s newest book of poetry, entitled Selenography, is something of a collaboration with Califone singer Tim Rutili. Wilkinson supplies the words while Rutili’s polaroids accompany each poem. Wilkinson’s poems read like vague sketches, and side by side with Rutili’s dreamy photos, they often send the mind down strange highways. There’s an organic, natural feel to the material, which forgoes any real sense of intention by opting for image-driven abstraction: “the river was/ easy incomplete but it/ took us/ like twigs/ polaroids of the papier-mache/ wolves/ you hear your name in/ the current?” The strength of Wilkinson’s material lies in its malleability. Each poem will evoke something different in each reader, and Rutili’s haunting images infuse more mystery rather than uncloaking any finite truths. Like a barely ajar curtain in the window of an old house, its pull is in its lack of transparency, in the stories behind its walls. – Capt. Obvious

Buy It:
Sidebrow Books: Joshua Marie Wilkinson – Selenography