Jessica Cohn offers gratitude for the unusual and unexpected
We express gratitude for many things — recovery from an illness, a thankful child, the generosity of a friend, and a recognition at work, to mention only a few. But have you thought about being grateful for a jar of buttons on the dresser, the smell of toast, how to preserve lemons, the satisfaction of making a list, or an empty box?
These are a few of the things coursing through Gratitude Diary: Poems, the debut collection by Jessica Cohn. Structured within a 10-day cycle, the poems focus on unusual items for which one might be grateful; some explain themselves. The objects are themselves symbols of something else, something fundamental in a person’s life.
Cohn writes with a razor-sharp precision; you’ll find no gratuitous words here. Each poem shapes an idea, a thought, an event, or an object. For example, start with a storm, the kind that creates havoc and damage. Even if you lose something in the storm, the idea will always remind you of what was there before.
Broken Skies
Listen, the feral year
has one last bone to pick,
tapping and scratching
on the outer seal
of the doorframe.
Seismic rain brings
ruin to the settlements,
breaches straw and sticks
and brick. Cataclysm
stomps the roof.
Listen to the rush
of weather in the news.
Wind washes the dock away.
There’s a telephone pole
on the beach.
Hour after hour
water washes water
dirtier. Sin to build where
rivers meet to have their way,
the distant say, but take no measure
of sin, destroying itself.
Just listen.
Wind worries the shoreline,
its rosary of piers, stucco
taco stands, seawalls.
Do not become attached,
the wind repeats.
You will always have
nostalgia, this
persistent need
to recall what passed.
Jessica Cohn
That’s what Cohn does in poem after poem: describes an object or event and then, often surprisingly, takes you to a very different place. And then you see what she did, and you see how much sense it makes. One of the most moving poems in the collection is entitled “The Movement of Clouds in Terrestrial Hours;” it begins with “My mother is so patient / in death” and ends with an expression of gratitude for what her mother taught her — and being forgiven for not seeing it at the time.
Cohn is a longtime editor who has written almost 60 nonfiction books primarily for schoolchildren. She’s also written two works of children’s fiction and numerous feature and news articles, educational materials (for example, for Weekly Reader Publications), and poems. Her poetry has been published by numerous literary journals, and now she’s assembled it as a full collection.
Gratitude Journal is something of a wonder, full of interesting introductory lines that lead you in unexpected directions. It’s also a joy to read simply for the language.
Photo by Fatma M, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young.
Browse more book reviews
How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.
“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”
—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish
- Poets and Poems: Ryan Ruby and “Context Collapse” - February 20, 2025
- Poets and Poems: Jessica Cohn and “Gratitude Diary” - February 18, 2025
- Poets and Poems: Donna Hilbert and “Enormous Blue Umbrella” - February 13, 2025
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