Talking with Poet Hannah VanderHart about Her Illuminating Debut Collection, âWhat Pecan Lightâ
It would be wrong to call Hannah VanderHartâs poems masterful, though at times it is tempting to, anyway.
In âWhen Someone Says a Poem Is Masterful,â a poem near the end of her first full-length collection,
What Pecan Light, the speaker asks, âwho wants to master the body of a poem? (no one should).â A beat later, an admission: âI have a master in my family tree / Jack Allums / he will always be there.â
These are poems that meet the white reader on a common ground, sometimes even the literal ground of a chicken coop, as in âWhen We Are Not Talking About Race In The South We Are Talking About Race In The South,â and then swiftly ask what is it to farm and be farmed, to cultivate and to reproduce a system of violence.