Index of Women by Amy Gerstler
Penguin Books, 2021
Amy Gerstler’s Index of Women is a collection of poetry for women and about women and channeled through the various voices of women (sorry, guys), but if a man would like to know how women are—that is, how they understand themselves in the world and what holds their gaze—they would do well to read this book, which is Gerstler’s tenth full-length collection.
Naturally, the kind of man who would exhibit this level of intellectual curiosity is the only kind who would think to crack a book of poetry entitled Index of Women. I hope they do. In the meantime, those of us who identify as women—especially women of a certain age—will see ourselves in these poems and will find joy and comfort there. Not that the poems are inherently comforting nor joyful—in many cases, on the contrary. Nevertheless, there is solace in hearing a voice that speaks your worries and sorrows. You can know, then, that you’re not alone with them, and Index of Women telegraphs a kind of historical overview of female sensibilities, though in many cases, the poems derive from a place of personal history. Which is to say, Gerstler’s history as a woman, thus far. It’s a neat trick.
Gerstler remains reliably Gerstler in this collection. This means that you will encounter whimsy, generosity of spirit, fun with sex, and a kind of intuitive attention to sound that makes the poems pleasing to the tongue. Consider the poem “Anthem,” which comes early in the collection, and which reads:
Dear blitzkrieg of wetness and breasts,
Dear masseuses and muses, thighs sluiced
with juices, Dear coven members posing
peppery questions, like: is a witchy third breast
akin to a third eye? Can we climb into the light
now from cellars or attics? Can we abandon
our nectar dance temporarily, stop skimming
the froth off the cauldrons and let our bravura
arias ascend? So much depends upon shrewd,
ingenious, difficult women, prodigal daughters
and wisecracking wives, unwilling brides, bakers
of exploding pies, giantesses in whose tresses
condors nest, audacious maidens with blood on
their tongues, all of whose chests house furious
hearts: how is it your beauty never departs?
In the above we can check off all the boxes: whimsy—there is such play in this poem and its rattling off of “difficult women” and their inherent value and intrinsic beauty. Moreover, the way Gerstler lifts them up—indeed, her poems often uplift the unsung—speaks to the kind of generosity you’ll find throughout her oeuvre.
Do we get the sex here? Indeed, and it is, quite literally, juicy—it should be noted here that, overall, Gerstler does a bang-up job writing of sex without too much luridness. Considering that this reviewer’s two least favorite words are “erotic” and “sensual,” I applaud her ability to address the nexus of intimate connection (see how I didn’t use “sensual” to modify “nexus”?) without making this reader squirm. Her talk of sex in poems is peek-a-boo—playful, again—and relies on the figurative—in the case above, if you’re squeamish like me, we’ve been blessed with the metonymic.
As for the sonic qualities of this sample poem, and of many poems in the collection, we see the use of syllabic echo and close rhymes to gently draw a reader through the poem. For example: “masseuses and muses, thighs sluiced / with juices” and “wisecracking wives, unwilling brides, bakers / of exploding pies.” All the internal alliteration is deeply pleasing to the ear.
Index of Women gathers a loser of virginity; the tooth fairy; a lost doll; a deceased friend; women in various positions, both physically or in terms of where they are in life; and many more, and it situates them at their varying moments of clarity—moments when a woman might become wise to the world. There is no doubt that if you identify as a woman, you will find yourself, one way or another, indexed within the pages of this collection.
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Sonia Greenfield (she/they) is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, Letdown and Boy With a Halo at the Farmer’s Market. Her chapbook, Helen of Troy is High AF, will be out with Harbor Editions in January 2023. Her book reviews have appeared in Plume, Valparaiso, and Entropy. She lives with her family in Minneapolis, where she teaches at Normandale College, edits the Rise Up Review, and advocates for both neurodiversity and the decentering of the cis/het white hegemony.