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Purchase this book
\n As If I\u2019m Really There<\/p>\n
Writing a review is easy, I tell myself. All I\u00a0have to do is read the book and then write what I think. Emilie Collyer\u2019s second full-length collection of poetry, As If I\u2019m Really There, makes the first necessity easy. She is a gracious hostess and serves up an attractively plated, robust yet piquant, four-course meal.<\/p>\n
First up is Watching: \u201cAll I had to do was want it. Grow into it, my perfect sculpted body. Spread\u2009\/ my effortless charm through every room I entered.\u201d (\u201cWhen I Was the Sundance Kid\u201d). And then there is With. \u201c$50\u00a0an hour, tutoring Bel in quiet\u2009\/ writing. Her car accident brain trauma\u2009\/ suspending her in teen fantasies of fame, flush\u2009\/ with effort to pen her story, use the hook\u2009\/ to write a best-selling work of brilliance.\u201d (\u201cQuiet Hook\u201d).<\/p>\n
Wonder takes in Collyer\u2019s parallel career as a playwright. \u201cI am in the front row waiting for the play to begin. I have been seated on the\u2009\/ horns of a dilemma. I don\u2019t remember choosing this seat. It must be what the\u2009\/ ticketing system meant by \u2018best available\u2019.\u201d (\u201cA Night at the Theatre\u201d). The book concludes with Weathering. \u201c\u2026 some advice says\u2009\/ don\u2019t do twisting movements\u2009\/ the spine can fracture, so it\u2019s all\u2009\/ straight lines from here to\u2009\/ the end.\u201d (\u201cLateral Ambling Gait\u201d).<\/p>\n
The second necessity \u2013 writing what I think \u2013 doesn\u2019t come so easily. My first thought was that this is a very good book. My second thought was, a very good book of poetry \u2013 as if the fact it is poetry were not immediately obvious. The blurb on the back cover points to \u201cCollyer\u2019s avid feminine and feminist interest\u201d. Perhaps this is why As If I\u2019m Really There slipped down so easily for me. This book aligns with my world view as it rolls smoothly forward on the vehicle of poetry\u2019s well-oiled wheels. I could hardly feel the poetry, although I needed it.<\/p>\n
A laundress who wants to wash woollens will fill a tub with lukewarm water, so when she tests the temperature she can hardly feel it. This sensation is called \u201chand-hot\u201d. I\u00a0wouldn\u2019t often recommend a book of poetry by saying, \u201cYou will hardly notice it doing you good\u201d \u2013 but on this occasion that is exactly what I am saying. \u2022<\/p>\n
Vagabond Press, 96pp, $25<\/p>\n
\n This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on
\n September 20, 2025 as “As If I\u2019m Really There”.<\/p>\n
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\n As If I\u2019m Really There<\/p>\n
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