Power Point by Jane Muschenetz
Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2024
The phrase data poems seems to pull at its own seams.
Yet data poems is what Jane Muschenetz calls the dynamic works in her new collection Power Point. The term fits. The poems include statistics, facts, even a references list. Muschenetz, who holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Business, has done her research. At the same time, these are truly poems, employing style and music in the service of revelation and resonance. Muschenetz has gathered often-startling details into heartfelt and thought-provoking poems that pointedly consider power’s effect on women’s lives.
The first poem, titled “Point of Order, or ‘A Progressive Kind of Danger,’” contemplates “what a woman is” using footnoted statistics. (Footnotes appear with the full published poem.) The opening lines illustrate Muschenetz’s innovative concept of a data poem:
In North America, a woman is
– 2 times more likely than a man to die from a heart attack in an emergency room1
– 32% more likely to die post-op if her surgeon is a man2
– 70% less likely than a man to be a surgeon3
The poem unfolds through skillful parallel structure, building urgency with each repetition of “likely.” Moreover, slant rhyme at the ends of lines connects ideas, repeating the nasal consonants m and n, and echoing vowels with the short a in “man” and the ending uh sound of the eo in “surgeon.” The blend of statistics and poetic elements creates a piece as energetic as it is effective.
The poems in Power Point expose how women’s perspectives have been overlooked, if not overtly silenced. For example, in “Failure to Thrive, a Point of Inflection,” a mother considers 1950s rhesus monkey experiments about maternal love. The speaker notes that, in the experiment, there were “only two mother archetypes allowed”—signaling the omission of so many other ways a mother nurtures her young.
Among the most fascinating poems in Power Point are those that utilize images and graphs. For instance, the poem “100% Mom, a PowerPoint Poem about Women and Labor,” uses the shape of a bar graph—which spells out MOM—to illuminate statistics about women in labor, as in giving birth, as well as women in the labor force. The combination of visual data and poetic language creates a striking work. Not surprisingly, this poem was nominated by Whale Road Review for Best of the Net and was honored with second place recognition in the 2024 California Press Women Communications Prize.
In her compelling collection Power Point, Jane Muschenetz deliberately shakes up expectations of what a poem can be. Through unexpected forms and engaging language, these poems balance tough truths with heart. The poems challenge readers to pay attention—as the cleverly titled “Stop This Poem!” urges, to “Be long in the world.”
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Kristine Rae Anderson is a Pushcart-nominated poet and author of the chapbook Field of Everlasting. Her poems recently appeared in SALT, Literary Mama, San Diego Poetry Annual, and Inlandia: A Literary Journey. She has published book reviews in Alehouse and Dotlit: The Online Journal of Creative Writing. Kristine holds an MFA from New England College.