The Mirrormaker

September 17, 2018
Poet, songwriter, and musician Laidlaw follows The Stuntman with more work that superimposes the myth of Echo and Narcissus on the Minnesota landscape through the story of Bob Dylan and Echo Helstrom. It’s a place where “homes on dead-flats/ sink into prairie sinks” and “gradations/ from landslide to landfall/ to rock-fall to rockabilly to rock-a-bye/ bifurcate the country.” The poems, which do not read like songs, attempt (and knowingly fail) to situate the self in relation to its surroundings, showing how dislocation and isolation can extend the self, though not necessarily in positive ways: “Echo thinks she walks on air/ thehypotheticalchild is born onto glass/ a vast glass shelf over a cavernous no.” The land feels hollow, literally so, for this is mining country, where “the slagpile plus the ore is the size of the hole.” Laidlaw’s deadpan humor works—“we wish we could box more of everything including ears”—though it’s a flash in the pan amid what could be viewed as an overabundance of fragments. As with Laidlaw’s first book, liner notes reference a companion album of original music. Though there is sadness and detachment in Laidlaw’s poems, he finds ways to get readers in the right frame of mind: “sun knives the trees/ then it stitches them back up.”

September 15, 2018

Singer/poet Laidlaw follows up The Stuntman by blending the story of Echo and Narcissus with that of Echo Star Helstrom and Bob Dylan, who immortalized her in "Girl from the North Country." Certainly, Echo is a poignant presence throughout, not only for her insightful wordplay ("here's to being heretofore human, here's/ to the time being") but simply her insights. "Just ask Echo// we want to invent a microphone that makes the moon its coil," says one poem; elsewhere, she says we're "dreaming of turning into the rich/ dust of our labor." Also striding through, "tallnorthcountrygirl" locates us in a world where "boys.../torch dead elms// like ten elkhorns" and observes "when we met/ you were already/ onstage." Yet readers won't dwell on the framework as they steer through this richly variegated and thoughtful work. What matters overall is the landscape, threatened with despoliation; the tough, ingratiating persona ("I missed the day they said think small"); and a beautifully articulated sense of longing. VERDICT Look for the release of accompanying songs, but first get the book.

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