Tangram, by Jonce Marshall Palmer

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

A tangram is often defined as something like “a puzzle cut into seven pieces that can be formed into various shapes”. It comes from the Chinese invention qīqiǎobǎn that became popular in Europe in the 18th century. You probably played with them as a child and perhaps didn’t know what it was called.

For Jonce Marshall Palmer, this is what poetry means—being able to play with the page, the contradictions of structure breathe life into the poem. Theirs is a poetics of movement, and their work expands, sways, falls, and yes, flies off the page. The legibility of each poem in Tangram is found just as much as its form as in its content. In this collection, every poem is a different creature with it’s own unique story of survival.

“In Tangram, Jonce Marshall Palmer addresses the personal and the public—from the loss of a grandparent to a fascist in the McDonald’s drive-thru and Victory Day in Moscow. These poems try to make sense of the pieces of identity strewn about like the pieces of a tangram, culminating in a shape only this poet can make. This chapbook offers up answers in a fresh voice—not giving the reader something easy but something true.”

—William Fargason, author of Love Song to the Demon-Possessed Pigs of Gadara

Jonce Marshall Palmer is a poet & librarian living in Denver, Colorado, in Aztlán. Their first chapbook was 2020's Searching for Smoke Rings (Ghost City Press). Find Jonce's writing at their blog redmuse.xyz or their website jmpalmer.carrd.co