Mayor Snow

May 2, 2016
This collection from Thran (Earworm) is at times intensely personal, and at others deeply sardonic. Through three sectionsâ"Carapace," "Mayor," and "River"âThran interweaves keen observation with melodic prose through prose poems, found poetry, and an array of other free and more established forms. The poetry follows similar themes regardless of section: identity, family, loss, politics in wide scope, and slow transformations. The most varied of the sections is "Mayor," each piece using a different fictional mayor to address various themes stemming from political bases, but "Carapace" is arguably the most arresting section due to its largely internal and self-exegetical approach. In the latter section's "A Drone's-Eye View of Roblin Lake," Thran tells readers of his residency in the late Canadian poet Al Purdy's A-frame home (where this book was composed): "Dug my stay here,/but I will shake him off me." Thran both does and doesn't; much of the book is informed deeply by Purdy's voice. It can be hard to tell where catalyzing elements end and Thran's voice begins, unless the reader is already familiar with Thran's prior work, but that periodic overshadowing of voice is the only marring in an otherwise excellent work.