Show Me Something You Can Not Even Think Of

In poet Elena Botts’ latest collection of poems, Show Me Something You Can Not Even Think Of, it is clear, that once more, we see a working poet taking risks with phrases and ideas, lending to a stream of consciousness, directed towards an unnamed reader, who may be privy to the poet’s thoughts, whether written or spoken.



In the opening poem, “i am still sitting here,” the narrator will “… listen in that shadow.” Showing the contrast between sight and sound; dark and light. “where have the dreams taken these dreamers,” which is a rhetorical question, seeming to permeate Botts’ work.



Often, the reader is taken by surprise, which reminds of part of a Keats’ maxim, “Poetry should surprise by a fine excess…” as with the ending of “the inexpressible joy of being alone; virgin forest reborn,” whereby, because of Time, we can be: “just another body floating down the river.”



In “july 30,” a compact, and terse poem, we see, once again, the contrasts between, wild nature and the prop of a room in a house, wherein the narrator suggests they are  “the ghost never meant to haunt any of you,” yet, is clearly speaking to ghosts, who indeed haunt the omniscient narrator.



In the tiny poem “the autumn field crickets,” Botts’ philosophies, and themes dominate; perceived as more than a witness, in her highly original poems, which continue to beckon the reader. Botts “took the song out of the night sky,” blending light and dark, to create a landscape, sometimes gothic and bleak; in other moments tender and personal, infused with the deft colors and sensual nuances of an impassioned poet with a future in letters ahead of her.



- Robert Milby, Orange County, NY Poet Laureate