Nick Flynn’s poetry could be described as confessional. Flynn is strikingly honest about his difficult childhood in dealing with an unstable mother, and a father who was physically absent, but seemed to be a looming presence throughout his life. Some Ether is a book of poems that focus on dark issues, primarily his mother’s suicide when Flynn was twenty-two years old. Flynn’s poems are dark, but they show a struggle for connectivity despite the harsh reality he often finds himself in.
Flynn divides Some Ether into four parts. The first part, called “The Visible Woman” focuses almost entirely on his childhood and his mother’s suicide. Flynn uses a free verse style and rhyme is used very rarely. Rhythm, however, is prevalent in all of Flynn’s poetry. He is able to control the rhythm with the use of punctuation and line breaks. For example, in the poem “Salt,” which appears in part three of Some Ether, Flynn uses spaces in the middle of lines which slows down the pacing of the poem:
“A woman stands before us a man drowning in her poem/She reads I’m tired of writing about fishermen.”
In “The Visible Woman” Flynn shows that he is unafraid to dive straight into his confessional style of writing. In his poem “You Ask How” Flynn displays his talent for mixing dark subject matter with his struggle to find connection. In this poem, Flynn’s struggle for connection isn’t exactly positive, nor does it seem very successful or productive. “You Ask How” is a poem that takes place after Flynn’s mother has taken her own life, and his struggle to somehow keep her memory alive: “I/eat all her percodans, to know/how far they can take me, because/they are there. So she/won’t. Cut straws/stashed in her glove compartment,/& I split them open/to taste the alkaloid residue.” Here, after his mother is gone Flynn attempts to connect to her by taking her drugs. “You Ask How” does not convey a great sense of hope, and reading this, we do not have a pleasant image or feeling, but despite its disturbing nature, Flynn tries to connect. The attempt at finding connection shows some hope because it shows that Flynn, no matter how destructive the method, wants to stay connected to the world.
Another motif Flynn uses throughout Some Ether is the image and sound, almost, of a voice coming through a device like a telephone or a speaker, or a tube. This starts most noticeably in the poem “Ago.” In “Ago” Flynn uses this technique to put a distance between himself and the subject of the poem. Flynn begins “Ago” with: “I don’t even know/how a telephone works, how your voice reached/all the way from Iron River.” In doing this, somehow it conveys the feeling that you, as the reader, are kept at more of a distance from the action of the poem. You are still involved in the poem because Flynn is letting you into such an intimate part of his life, it is almost as if you are viewing the events as a dream. Flynn creates a divide where it is made clear that these events are in the past, and we are seeing it that way, but as if there were a sort of cloud surrounding the images and the dialogue is simply an echo.
In the third part of Some Ether, called “Devil Theory,” Flynn writes a lot more about his father. These poems that do focus on his father show a definite struggle for connectivity. We know the history of Flynn’s father, Jonathan Flynn; he was absent throughout much of his life, and had delusions of grandeur. Jonathan Flynn was not a stable figure in his son’s life, so it is not surprising that he would long for some sort of connection to him. In the poem “Father Outside,” Flynn creates vivid, almost abstract imagery, which shows a very strong desire to reach out to his father. “My father is ink falling/in tiny blossoms, a bottle wrapped in a paperbag. I want to believe/that if I get the story right/we will rise, newly formed/...only this time I will know/what to say.” This poem shows an internal struggle that Flynn has to connect to a person who has never been in his life. Flynn notes that he knows his father is out there in the world somewhere and we are let in to his desire to feel a connection that may not be possible.
I loved Flynn’s honesty, and that is a trait I would steal from his poetry. Exposing oneself through writing is always the hardest thing to to. He expresses himself without making himself out to be a victim which is also something that is challenging. He uses his poetry like a diary, expressing his thoughts and feelings while trying to find a bigger meaning in everything that has happened to him. I have never read poetry like Nick Flynn’s. It was almost hard to read at times because it was so personal, but I learned so much about Nick Flynn just through his poetry; his unique style and voice that I had to continue reading, and read Some Ether over and over again because the story in his poems kept pulling me in.
Flynn divides Some Ether into four parts. The first part, called “The Visible Woman” focuses almost entirely on his childhood and his mother’s suicide. Flynn uses a free verse style and rhyme is used very rarely. Rhythm, however, is prevalent in all of Flynn’s poetry. He is able to control the rhythm with the use of punctuation and line breaks. For example, in the poem “Salt,” which appears in part three of Some Ether, Flynn uses spaces in the middle of lines which slows down the pacing of the poem:
“A woman stands before us a man drowning in her poem/She reads I’m tired of writing about fishermen.”
In “The Visible Woman” Flynn shows that he is unafraid to dive straight into his confessional style of writing. In his poem “You Ask How” Flynn displays his talent for mixing dark subject matter with his struggle to find connection. In this poem, Flynn’s struggle for connection isn’t exactly positive, nor does it seem very successful or productive. “You Ask How” is a poem that takes place after Flynn’s mother has taken her own life, and his struggle to somehow keep her memory alive: “I/eat all her percodans, to know/how far they can take me, because/they are there. So she/won’t. Cut straws/stashed in her glove compartment,/& I split them open/to taste the alkaloid residue.” Here, after his mother is gone Flynn attempts to connect to her by taking her drugs. “You Ask How” does not convey a great sense of hope, and reading this, we do not have a pleasant image or feeling, but despite its disturbing nature, Flynn tries to connect. The attempt at finding connection shows some hope because it shows that Flynn, no matter how destructive the method, wants to stay connected to the world.
Another motif Flynn uses throughout Some Ether is the image and sound, almost, of a voice coming through a device like a telephone or a speaker, or a tube. This starts most noticeably in the poem “Ago.” In “Ago” Flynn uses this technique to put a distance between himself and the subject of the poem. Flynn begins “Ago” with: “I don’t even know/how a telephone works, how your voice reached/all the way from Iron River.” In doing this, somehow it conveys the feeling that you, as the reader, are kept at more of a distance from the action of the poem. You are still involved in the poem because Flynn is letting you into such an intimate part of his life, it is almost as if you are viewing the events as a dream. Flynn creates a divide where it is made clear that these events are in the past, and we are seeing it that way, but as if there were a sort of cloud surrounding the images and the dialogue is simply an echo.
In the third part of Some Ether, called “Devil Theory,” Flynn writes a lot more about his father. These poems that do focus on his father show a definite struggle for connectivity. We know the history of Flynn’s father, Jonathan Flynn; he was absent throughout much of his life, and had delusions of grandeur. Jonathan Flynn was not a stable figure in his son’s life, so it is not surprising that he would long for some sort of connection to him. In the poem “Father Outside,” Flynn creates vivid, almost abstract imagery, which shows a very strong desire to reach out to his father. “My father is ink falling/in tiny blossoms, a bottle wrapped in a paperbag. I want to believe/that if I get the story right/we will rise, newly formed/...only this time I will know/what to say.” This poem shows an internal struggle that Flynn has to connect to a person who has never been in his life. Flynn notes that he knows his father is out there in the world somewhere and we are let in to his desire to feel a connection that may not be possible.
The final poem of Some Ether, called “God Forgotten” is a very emotional end to the book. Flynn brings back the motif of speaking through some sort of object--in this case a cardboard tube. This again gives the feeling that we are viewing some sort of dream. Flynn writes: “Once I spoke to my mother/through a long cardboard tube,/put one end to her sleeping ear & the other/to my mouth & whispered,/can you hear me? She was younger than I am now, she will always be younger.” Outside of this memory, Flynn is with a girl, and he seems to be equating the time spent with this person to the memory he is recalling. Flynn is making two connections, one in the past, and one in the present. The connection in the present gives the impression that he is moving forward. Although it is not obvious, I see hope in this poem because as the final poem, it seems significant that Flynn has put himself with another person, a person who he is making a physical connection with.
Nick Flynn’s poetry shows a definite struggle to find a connection. While all of his attempts to connect to something may not have been successful or even productive, Flynn’s honest portrayal of his difficult life show that he has moved forward rather that stayed stagnant. His willingness to expose so much of himself shows that there is hope, that although the life Flynn was given was harsh he still shows love towards his mother and father, making a connection to them, and to the reader.I loved Flynn’s honesty, and that is a trait I would steal from his poetry. Exposing oneself through writing is always the hardest thing to to. He expresses himself without making himself out to be a victim which is also something that is challenging. He uses his poetry like a diary, expressing his thoughts and feelings while trying to find a bigger meaning in everything that has happened to him. I have never read poetry like Nick Flynn’s. It was almost hard to read at times because it was so personal, but I learned so much about Nick Flynn just through his poetry; his unique style and voice that I had to continue reading, and read Some Ether over and over again because the story in his poems kept pulling me in.
