Cosmic Pockets
by Joann Renee Boswell
reviewed by Paul Jolly
If I knew nothing of Joann Boswell’s life, I would still enjoy her new book of poetry, Cosmic Pockets. It tugs at a reader’s elbows and whispers, “Are you ready for an adventure?” As the text on the front cover says, the book is written “for sci-loving skeptical mystics, mothers, feminists, all.”
On the other hand, knowing some outlines of Boswell’s life journey adds sparkle to the poetry. She grew up in a Christian family and attended a small Christian school, where Creationism was the main focus in science classes. She attended George Fox University (GFU), studying Music, Theater, and Writing/Literature. Years later she returned to GFU to get her Master of Arts in Teaching. Somewhere in there, she branched out from her Evangelical upbringing, and has since discovered how cool science is. She married her longtime GFU crush, who is now the pastor of Camas Friends Church, and they are raising three young children. Camas Friends is one of seven churches that formed the new Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends, which is welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community. Boswell served as Clerk of the yearly meeting’s Coordinating Committee during its first three years.
The title poem of Cosmic Pockets hints at the expansiveness of Boswell’s inquiry. It begins:
swishing and swirling
galaxies
stars polka dotting
God’s cosmic gown.
Already, a few words in, we are in territory that flip-flops between the cosmos and a feminine God. Soon we learn that the pockets of God’s gown are black holes, which contain, among other things, “stellular phones.” Where else could you find such a glorious, playful mashup?
To weave her theological insights, Boswell is as deft with science fiction as she is with science. A pair of poems called “The Ultimate Immigrant” uses the vocabulary of science fiction to describe Jesus’ birth and crucifixion. In “The Ultimate Immigrant, part I: Inception,”, she describes Jesus’s dilemma:
I had peered inside your planet’s Empathy Ray
with no instrument to unsee your pain, your problem,
how could I float by, sending thoughts and prayers without action?
In the context of this poem, “thoughts and prayers” is a clear reference to politicians’ empty gestures of compassion after mass shootings. It is one of several comments on contemporary tragedies that can be found throughout these poems. “The Ultimate Immigrant,
part II: Deportation” ends with this haunting plea:
three days twinkled
with lightning precision and I returned
begging you to bear my name only
without fear of Other.
One of my favorites in the collection is “Orbit,” in which Boswell describes the struggle of a grocery store shopping trip with three children, again borrowing language from astronomy:
My space extended,
including extra satellite appendages
whirling geocentrically unaware, trajectories toward
oranges sure to tumble and plummet
as my children’s paths collide, smashing strangers
and fruit in their youngling epicycles.
The anguish is familiar to any parent. By describing it as a galactic drama, she makes it strange again. Telling the story at a galactic scale allows us to laugh at the insignificance of a moment of parental stress. She then ponders:
Is this how the sun feels?
her planet babies bashing meteors into pebbles
Sun sends out thousands of apology notes.
Boswell shared this poem during a zoom reading, early in the pandemic. Her three children rotated around her sedately as she recited. It was one of my sweetest moments so far in this tumultuous year. I promise you sweetness, strangeness, and laughter if you enter Joann Boswell’s wonderful universe.
Cosmic Pockets was published in 2020 by Fernwood Press. You can find more information here: https://joannrenee.com/cosmic-pockets/
Paul Jolly is a member of Strawberry Creek Monthly Meeting in Berkeley, CA (PacYM).