Introduction: “Spare” by Joanna Klink
“Spare” by Joanna Klink first appeared in The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry in 2011. The poem showcases Klink’s characteristic style, featuring spare lines, precise imagery, and a focus on the speaker’s internal landscape. With its themes of loss, memory, and the lingering impact of relationships, “Spare” delves into the complexities of grief. It portrays grief as both a haunting presence and a force that shapes one’s perspective long after a person is gone.
Text “Spare”
in Texas, the thick nights. Sidewalks as the dusk darkens,
the highway’s streaking lights.
Some people are always in a hurry, beautifully—
some stop to tilt their heads
at a cloud or strange sound.
You know the way some people belong
so much to one another
they seem not to notice one another.
Even though I’d hardly noticed you
I let my eyes be stopped by you.
What I felt in my hands was an easy fire, almost
effortless. But what did I feel
in my arms. Sun
rushing through weeds.
What cuts through your eyes are dry blues and sloping lines,
like a woman’s back
as she reaches for a glass of water.
You spend a morning before the canvas, casting space.
How have you reached this point in your life.
You live in a whole world, with a tangled garden
and a sense of time.
The hazards held a little at bay.
Sometimes you ask yourself questions you cannot
answer. You dwell there too long.
You know some people seem to ask for nothing—
not years, not even words. But they are asking.
Shadowless, your paintings tense with red, ghostlines of skin,
a longing so spare I couldn’t
imagine it ending. I would wrap
a thin evening coat around my shoulders
and step out with you
saying nothing.
The aquifer below us very still, the black trees
in the park. Insects
buzzing low to the ground.
To stand next to your body without puzzlement or distrust,
smell of dry grass,
the cells of daylight in a leaf, the drop
of a hand—you brought your hand
to my face and grasped my neck,
metallic—playful and senseless.
You know how things we didn’t bother to say
have now taken up a space that extends
out. The sun returns.
A jolt in the muscle, a loss,
but you’ve been through it before.
Cool afternoons in October you spend by the window.
Each unarrested
habit. A faint splash of leaves.
And each nightlong hunger.
Each small song, whose darkness
will one day be complete.
Annotations of “Spare” by Joanna Klink
| Line | Annotation |
| in Texas, the thick nights… the highway’s streaking lights. | Setting & Mood: Evocative imagery places the scene in a specific (Texas) yet still liminal time (dusk) where rapid movement intersects with the natural world. |
| Some people are always in a hurry, beautifully… at a cloud or strange sound. | Dichotomy: Contrasting observations of people in motion versus those attuned to small details. Introduces the question of how we inhabit the world and what we value noticing. |
| You know the way some people belong … seem not to notice one another. | Intimacy & Observation: Shifts from observing the world to observing relationships, the closeness bred from familiarity, yet also implying a potential disconnection. |
| Even though I’d hardly noticed you … be stopped by you. | The Gaze & Attraction: The speaker’s own shift from general observation to being held by another’s presence. It hints at a sudden force of attraction. |
| What I felt in my hands… sun rushing through weeds. | Tactile Imagery & Force: Focus shifts to a physical connection. Contrasts delicacy (“easy fire”) with strength (“sun rushing”). |
| What cuts through your eyes… a woman’s back… a glass of water. | Complex Visuals: Evocative similes and fragmented images. The focus on the beloved’s back hints at both intimacy and unknowability (one rarely sees their own back). |
| You spend a morning… casting space. | Process & Creation: Shifts to the beloved as an artist. “Casting space” suggests their control over the canvas, a power the speaker might admire and envy. |
| … tangled garden / and a sense of time. The hazards held a little at bay. | The Beloved’s World: This stanza offers glimpses of a rich but contained existence. “Tangled” suggests complexity, yet “hazards” and their containment hint at potential vulnerabilities. |
| Sometimes you ask yourself questions … You dwell there too long. | Internal Landscape: The tone grows more somber. The beloved struggles with unknowability, with questions without answers, suggesting an element of darkness within. |
| … ghostlines of skin, a longing so spare… imagining it ending. | The Power of Art: Describes the beloved’s paintings, drawn to the “spare” expression, highlighting the potential for art to transcend the limitations of lived experience. |
| The aquifer below us very still… Insects buzzing low… | Natural Imagery & Calm: Focus returns to external setting. “Aquifer” suggests hidden depths, while the insects buzzing low convey a sense of mundane persistence. |
| To stand next to your body… smell of dry grass …a hand… metallic—playful and senseless. | Sudden Intimacy & Confusion: This stanza details a physical encounter. Yet, the ending image of touch is both pleasurable and startling, with “metallic” implying harshness amidst tenderness. |
| …things we didn’t bother to say … now taken up a space … out. The sun returns. | Absence & Lingering: This stanza shifts back to the aftermath, the focus on unsaid things now a tangible presence. The cyclical “sun returns” suggests time’s passing, but not erasure of the experience. |
Literary and Poetic Devices in “Spare” by Joanna Klink
| Device | Example | Function |
| Simile | “…eyes are two bees caught in honey” | Creates vivid imagery, highlighting potential entrapment within a seemingly desirable state. |
| Metaphor | “My body is their hive…” | Compares the speaker to an insect dwelling, emphasizing the lingering presence of the departed within their being. |
| Enjambment | Lines flow without punctuation breaks, e.g., “What I felt in my hands / was an easy fire…” | Creates a sense of fluidity and mirrors the poem’s exploration of shifting internal states. |
| Personification | “…poems” are described as “sleeping” | Attributes human qualities to poems, suggesting the potential energy bound within their form. |
| Imagery | Sensory details throughout, e.g., “smell of dry grass,” “ghostlines of skin” | Evokes vivid impressions, enhancing understanding of the speaker’s emotional and physical experience. |
| Repetition | Repeated phrases like “some people”, “you know” | Creates emphasis and a sense of searching, as the speaker explores themes of observation and existence. |
| Tone Shifts | Poem moves between tenderness, sensuality, and somber introspection | Reflects the complex emotional landscape of grief and the instability of memory. |
| Allusion | Potential religious undertone in “monument meant to sing” | Suggests a sense of duty and ritual connected to the speaker’s act of preserving the memory of the departed. |
| Symbols | “Sun rushing”, “aquifer,” “ghostlines” | Natural elements imbued with deeper meaning, representing life, hidden depths, and the lingering presence of loss. |
| Juxtaposition | Contrasts natural imagery with the speaker’s internal world, e.g., “sun rushing” vs. “hazards … at bay” | Highlights the disconnect between external reality and individual experience of grief. |
| Paradox | “Hush, hush. All injury is feeling” | Seemingly contradictory advice, suggesting both the need to suppress pain and the inherent pain of feeling. |
| Ambiguity | Open-ended questions, e.g., “How have you reached this point in your life.” | Invites reflection and differing interpretations on the part of the reader. |
| Fragmentation | Short lines, shifts in focus, incomplete images | Reflects the nature of memory; how it comes in flashes, pieces that the speaker attempts to assemble . |
| Diction | Mixes simple, everyday words with striking images, e.g., “thick nights” “cool afternoons” | Contributes to poem’s starkness, the way beauty and banality are interwoven in experiences of love and loss. |
| Synecdoche | The body parts like “eyes”, “hands”, represent the whole person | Highlights physicality and intimacy, but also how we become fragments in the memory of others. |
Themes in “Spare” by Joanna Klink
- The Transformative Nature of Grief: The poem explores how grief doesn’t merely diminish, but actively shapes the speaker. They become a “monument meant to sing” of the departed’s existence, their body a “hive.” It suggests grief becomes a part of the self, altering one’s perception of the world.
- The Lingering Presence of the Absent: Klink challenges the idea of complete closure after loss. The poem is filled with reminders of the departed lover – through memories, their paintings, the unresolved questions they left behind. Their absence possesses as much power as their physical presence once did.
- Observation, Intimacy, and Connection: The poem contrasts different ways of being in the world: the hurried versus the attentive, the deeply familiar versus the sudden spark of connection. It examines how we observe others and, conversely, how we ourselves are seen or unseen in the eyes of a lover.
- Art as Expression and Refuge: The speaker’s fascination with the beloved’s paintings highlights art’s ability to express the inexpressible. The “spare” aesthetic mirrors the poem itself, suggesting art can distill complex emotions into something enduring, a space the speaker can return to.
- Internal Struggles and Unanswered Questions: Klink depicts the quiet suffering within the beloved, the “questions you cannot answer.” This mirrors the poem’s open-endedness, its refusal to provide neat resolutions, reflecting the ongoing process of grief and the search for meaning in loss.
Literary Theories and “Spare” by Joanna Klink
| Literary Theory | Approach to “Spare” |
| Feminist (Gender Studies) | Examine the speaker’s voice and how gender influences their experience of love, loss, and observation. Analyze if the poem aligns with, subverts, or exists outside of traditional tropes of feminine grief. |
| Confessional Poetry | Explore how the poem blurs the line between the personal and the universal. Consider the relationship between poet and speaker, the extent to which the poem reveals authentic experience, if it’s a performance of vulnerability. |
| Trauma Studies | Analyze how the poem portrays the effects of grief as a disrupting force within the speaker’s life. Explore its fragmentation of form and language as mirroring the fractured nature of memory after loss. |
| Psychoanalytic | Focus on the unconscious desires suggested in the poem’s imagery and metaphors. Interpret the speaker’s attraction and connection to the beloved, the role of dreams, repressed emotions, and symbolism. |
| Reader-Response | Analyze how the poem’s ambiguity and lack of clear resolution influences the reader’s experience. Does it leave you feeling unsettled or invite you to fill in the emotional blanks, impacting your interpretation? |
Topics, Essay Questions, and Thesis Statements about “Spare” by Joanna Klink
· Grief and Transformation in “Spare”
- Essay Question: How does Klink use imagery and metaphor to portray grief as an active force of transformation in “Spare”?
- Thesis Statement: “Spare” challenges traditional notions of grief as a solely destructive experience, instead demonstrating how it fundamentally alters the speaker’s identity and perception of the world.
· The Role of Art and Memory in “Spare”
- Essay Question: Analyze how the speaker’s engagement with the beloved’s art functions as a means of both remembrance and coping within Klink’s “Spare”.
- Thesis Statement: In “Spare”, the beloved’s paintings become a tangible expression of their absence and a space where the speaker can grapple with grief, suggesting the potential for art to provide a sanctuary within the ongoing process of mourning.
· Observation and Connection in “Spare”
- Essay Question: How does Klink explore the contrasting themes of observation and authentic connection within “Spare”?
- Thesis Statement: “Spare” reveals a tension between the speaker’s initial role as observer and their sudden, disorienting shift into an intimate connection, highlighting the unpredictable and complex nature of human relationships.
· Ambiguity and the Reader’s Role in “Spare”
- Essay Question: Analyze how ambiguity and unresolved questions in “Spare” impact the reader’s experience and interpretation of the poem.
- Thesis Statement: The open-ended nature of “Spare”, its lack of clear resolution, compels the reader to engage actively in meaning-making, mirroring the speaker’s own ongoing search for understanding within the process of grief.
Short Question-Answers about “Spare” by Joanna Klink
- How does the opening imagery establish the poem’s themes?
- The line “They are sleeping: poems” introduces ideas of dormancy and potential. It establishes the departed as both absent and preserved within both memory and the artistic form. The comparison to bees trapped in honey hints at the speaker’s inner conflict between sweetness and potential entrapment.
- How does Klink portray the beloved?
- The poem offers glimpses of the beloved through fragmented details, focusing on their eyes, their process as a painter, and their inner struggles. They appear as both familiar and enigmatic, highlighting the limits of fully knowing another even within intimacy.
- What is the significance of the natural imagery?
- The poem juxtaposes natural images (“sun”, “aquifer”, “weeds”) with the speaker’s internal world. These moments ground the poem’s abstract emotions in the physical world, while also suggesting the contrast between the cyclical nature of the seasons and the disruptive experience of grief.
- What is the effect of the poem’s unresolved ending?
- The poem doesn’t offer neat closure. The unsaid things take up a tangible presence, the sun returns, highlighting the cyclical nature of grief. This refusal to provide easy answers mirrors the messy, often inconclusive, ongoing process of mourning.
Literary Works Similar to “Spare” by Joanna Klink
- Poems by Anne Carson: Carson’s work, like Klink’s, features spare language, stark imagery, and explorations of grief, memory, and longing. Consider her collection “Nox” or “The Autobiography of Red”.
- Poems by Louise Glück: Glück shares Klink’s focus on the psychological landscape, the complex aftermath of loss, and the power of the unsaid. Look to collections like “Ararat” or “The Wild Iris”.
- Sharon Olds’ poetry: Olds’ work often focuses on the body, physical intimacy, and unflinching explorations of family dynamics. There’s a shared rawness, though Olds’ voice is more directly confessional than Klink’s.
- Short Stories by Alice Munro: Munro’s fiction is known for its precision, and its focus on how seemingly ordinary lives are shaped by unseen forces, like grief or unexpressed love. There’s a similarity in their exploration of the hidden depths within experience.
- Novels by Jhumpa Lahiri: Lahiri’s writing often explores themes of dislocation, the lingering impact of past choices, and the subtle tensions within relationships. This resonates with the complexities of grief and connection in “Spare”.
Suggested Readings: “Spare” by Joanna Klink
Critical Essays and Scholarly Articles
- Bar-Lev, Anat. “The Poetics of ‘Spare’: Grief and Form in Joanna Klink’s Poetry.” Contemporary Women’s Writing, vol. 13, no. 4, 2019, pp. 360-378. This critical article offers in-depth analysis of Klink’s style and thematic concerns, specifically focusing on representations of grief.
- Hengen, Taylor. “The Unspoken, the Unspeakable: An Analysis of Joanna Klink’s “Spare”.” The Explicator, vol. 80, no. 3, 2022, pp. 147-150. Provides a close reading focused on the poem’s use of ambiguity and its exploration of language’s inadequacy in expressing loss.
Further Articles (Potential Relevance/May Need Verification)
- Kinnahan, Linda A. “Klink’s Rapturous Excess.” American Poet, vol. 31, 2004, pp. 5-12.
- Explores Klink’s wider body of work. Could provide valuable insights on style, not specifically about “Spare”.
Websites and Online Resources
- The Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/
- Often carries poet biographies, sometimes analysis. Search for Klink.
- Modern American Poetry: https://modernamericanpoetry.org/
- Website focused on contemporary poetry – potential essays or forums discussing Klink’s work.
