AF2 Review: Poetry as Opiate of the Masses: "COPIUM" by Nada Gordon (above/ground press, Canada)

 

Cover of COPIUM by Nada Gordon (above/ground press) 

(Ottawa, Canada) (2025)

Poetry as Opiate of the Masses: A review of COPIUM by Nada Gordon (above/ground press, Canada)

 

COPIUM by Nada Gordon

Ottawa, Canada: above/ground press, August 2025

24 pages; stapled

 

Review by De Villo Sloan

 

Rob Mclennan has added another literary gem to the list of recent chapbooks issued by above/ground press in Ottawa, Canada, with the publication of COPIUM by Nada Gordon.

COPIUM is a single lyric poem composed of elegant tercets that encode opulent imagery like ornate beadwork. Through associations, wordplay, unexpected juxtapositions, and explorations of poetic discourse, Gordon creates a unique and engaging record of what in Modernity is known as “the stream of consciousness.”

Her narrative melds objective and subjective realities; she skillfully provides multiple perspectives on daily life. The book includes images by Gordon in collaboration with MidJourney AI.

COPIUM succeeds on its Flarfy juxtapositions, irony, popcult references, and occasional absurdist incoherence. She has developed a postavant poetic line that extends Modernist fragmentation into new realms, which I believe is an accomplishment of great significance.

From COPIUM by Nada Gordon (above/ground press) 

(Ottawa, Canada) (2025)

Nada Gordon has a rare ability to create poetic forms that permit (if they do not encourage) multiple but equally illuminating interpretations. In COPIUM, I unexpectedly found a lyric poem of outstanding beauty and insight. The third and fourth stanzas of the poem provide a good example of how its self-reflexivity contributes to the poem’s genesis:

Peacock fanning out…

swans entwining necks

as co-beings

 

feathering extremities

like kelp, flowers, hands

in a diamond brain (brine) of lost time.

 

For me, the pleasure of reading COPIUM is found in its self-reflective reverie, (consciously) aesthetic escapism, and its meta-poetical commentary. Gordon gives me the sublime experience of decayed opulence described to perfection with imagery by Charles Baudelaire in The Flowers of Evil. I find myself returning to the text for the pleasure of its aesthetic decadence for the same reasons I return to Baudelaire and Poe. 

COPIUM is also a fascinating compendium of English language nouns and adjectives that are useful in both scientific and artistic discourse. Here is an example from COPIUM by Nada Gordon showing her use of particulars:

 

           Caves of gems, and a pomegranate gem

           as a giant war demon.

           Mendelssohn infuses a dark city

 

           With the idea of ‘charging’

           (being recharged) –

           rogue elephants

 

           the tusk, the tree

           the metals, the mortals,

           breath and gourds and reeds.

 

           what are:

           ‘words’ ‘texts’ ‘friends’

           ‘membranes’ ‘borders’ ‘organs’

 

‘           countries’ ‘Jews’ ‘food’

‘           animals’ ‘cities’ ‘books’

           ‘cells’ ‘Gaza’ ‘gauze’

 

Paradoxically, however, looking beyond traces of conceptual writing, Gordon’s lyric is built on the solid foundation of, “No ideas but in things.” In fact, a close linguistic analysis of the various catalogs woven into COPIUM would likely produce interesting results.

A worldview present in Gordon’s writing is that language is an inevitable intermediary in human communication, expression and – of course - poetry. COPIUM is a lush sea of imagery and a (sometimes) mechanistic interrogation of language. Nada Gordon often approaches the edge of meaning: the same terrain as asemic writers. She brings COPIUM into the realm of visual and concrete poetry:

 

    Owls

    Opals

    Opossums

 

    and a lunar pOnd

    the loss of pherOmOne pOwer

    in the OdORless digital world

 

    The letter O:

    Just lOOk at it!

    Ketamina LOy.

Nada Gordon's COPIUM is a multi-faceted composition that invites readers to engage with the text often, revealing multiple perspectives and interpretations. She is one of our most important poetic voices. above/ground press has done extraordinary work producing this edition. If you only purchase one chapbook in 2025, order COPIUM by Nada Gordon. 

From COPIUM by Nada Gordon (above/ground press) 

(Ottawa, Canada) (2025)

De Villo Sloan is a concrete poet living in Upstate NY. He writes about postavant lit & culture and is director of the Winifred & De Villo Sloan, Jr. Charitable Fund.