Reflecting on COVID Through Poetry

With this year marking the five year anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic, many are reflecting back on their time of handmade facemasks, washing groceries, and the other quirks and heartbreaks of time spent in quarantine. Karen Finley’s new book of poetry COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco dives headfirst into that time of confusion, loss and growth, and the fallout that followed the pandemic.

Finley currently works as a professor at NYU and has written ten books prior to COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco. While the book is classified as poetry, Finley pushes against what she finds a limiting name. “They’re more of poetic essays…experimental language that processes the pandemic and the times.” Finley has also used her experimental language pieces in performance, taking her works and speaking them aloud. Finley believes that because of the musical beat inherent in poetry, her works make it easier for readers to connect and infuse their own experiences onto the page. “It’s musical, so people can respond to it emotionally,” says Finley. When people can respond emotionally, it makes it easier to foster engagement and personal reflection.

The book follows an arc, starting with the beginning of COVID and the anxiety that came with masking, the loneliness and the strange habits. It follows through until “we’re grappling with the politics of what’s going on in the world, the grief that we’re feeling, and everything we’ve missed while the pandemic is going on.” Finley hopes that as audiences close out their engagement with her piece, they leave with clarity of where to go with the grief that follows the trauma of isolation. 

Since so many suffered in ways big and small during quarantine, some may be reluctant to return to that time. Finley offers a different viewpoint. “It’s the examined life that gives purpose and meaning…,” says Finley. “I think looking back is also looking forward, because the book isn’t just about looking in the past…It’s about processing, but it’s also about looking ahead. Where to go next? How do I take this? What have I learned from this? Where is the humor in this? Where is the transformation?” These questions are imperative not only when reflecting on global pandemics, but for all aspects of life.

On Thursday, April 24th from 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., Finley will be holding a dramatic reading from her new book of poetry COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco and invites guests to participate in a Q&A following the performance at Big Red Books in Nyack. As part of the aftermath of COVID, Finley finds it important to create fellowship, kinship, and carve out spaces for gatherings that make “a difference in our humanity.” Learn more about this event at bigredbooks.net or by calling 845-875-7707.