Books
David Stavanger
The Drop Off
I have always supposed that much, if not most, contemporary poetry is nonfiction, that you are eavesdropping on a life being lived and understood in increments. But I have sometimes winced at what seemed to be unfair dealing or an imbalance of power between the writer and the subject. This didn’t happen in David Stavanger’s collection The Drop Off.
Within the scope of its vertiginous trajectory, the poetry may approach a line that should not be crossed, but it scrupulously veers away. As it does, for instance, in “Seaweed”, when the child is “unable or unwilling to create a cheap simile / for me to use in this public domain”.
The thrust of this book is co-parenting. There are at least two other characters in play: a child and a child’s mother. In “The Drop Off”, which examines the dynamic between separated parents, Stavanger creates a painful tenderness: “You make a joke over the phone / knowing it is not funny / to reassure a child that the world / is still around. Dad jokes only / work when nothing is at stake. / It’s his birthday soon, he’ll send / a picture of a cake and you will / send a picture of a candle.”
There is some rougher music allocated to landlords and suchlike. The kind of people who “will always take the last beer / from your fridge” (“Review”) or those who “point and mock pants / around ankles, the sensation of / someone else’s shame in plain / sight enough to induce laughter / and running commentary” (“The Specimens on Crown Street”). In “Fifteen ways to be erased”, Stavanger examines the infernal tribe of bullies: “In some ways, their victims / were the most reliable intimacy they had in their lives, often one / in which they had a sense of agency and control.” But the compassion of insight can only go so far. “Stunning to / look into the light of your child and see yourself burning.”
The cumulative effect of reading The Drop Off is of being tenderised: of being softened up, so to speak, to accept the implacable reality of a world that is both beautiful and terrible.
This is an extraordinary book. David Stavanger deftly uses the rhythms and rituals of poetry to revelatory effect. The Drop Off delights with its craft, and illuminates unflinchingly the heart of the matter.
Upswell, 116pp, $24.99
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on June 7, 2025 as "The Drop Off".
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