Gnarly Thumbs, Noah Berlatsky
Anxiety Press, 2025
1
Human thumbs. According to EarthDate episode 387, “our opposable thumbs may have made early human technology and sophisticated cultural practices possible.” And yet, according to Oxford Languages, the term “all thumbs” means to “be clumsy or awkward in one’s actions.” So true. Many of the modern world’s most sophisticated cultural practices often feel clumsy and awkward in spirit.
2
The title of Noah Berlatsky’s poetry collection Gnarly Thumbs is lifted from the final line in the poem “You’ve Got To Stand For Something,” the penultimate poem in the book. “Ditch those rigid traits, and let the / gnarly thumbs / beat down the investors in the Danger Room of your / soul.” I asked a Magic 8 ball what the title signifies and it responded: “Ask again later.”
3
I asked Noah Berlatsky why he chose that title. “The book's to some extent an exercise in magpie collage and losing the connections between inundating gibberish, so it's maybe appropriate that those two words have flailed into twisted and stunted stumbling. Which is to say I can't remember!”
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A sonnet is “a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set rhyming scheme.” It traditionally has a volta, or “turn,” which signifies a shift or change in direction. Berlatsky’s sonnets are full of hairpin turns, the reader spun in circles. Rollercoaster poetry. Before going on this high-speed ride, please secure all loose items. You may also want something in your stomach to keep it settled.
5
My first impression of this book was one of confusion and wonder and, even now, with every re-reading my confusion and wonder continues to grow. I composed the following book blurb to celebrate the experience: “Have you ever entered a dark room and turned on the light and saw dozens of things scurry around in every direction? Our world is that room, this book is that light, and these poems are those things. Noah Berlatsky’s sonnets are quick, hungry, obscene, frightening, and alive. “Paint prosperity. Photograph the opposite. This is Art / Garfunkel on the bridge over heaven’s stentorian schmaltz.” You may feel shaken or disturbed along the way, but rest assured: you’re in good hands with Gnarly Thumbs.”
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When thinking of Gnarly Thumbs I’m reminded of a section from Mark Yakich’s A Guide for the Perplexed. “A poem can feel like a locked safe in which the combination is hidden inside. In other words, it’s okay if you don’t understand a poem. Sometimes it takes dozens of readings to come to the slightest understanding. And sometimes understanding never comes. It’s the same with being alive: Wonder and confusion mostly prevail.”
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In the book’s acknowledgments Berlatsky thanked Clark Coolidge for giving him the “general idea.” I asked the Magic 8 ball if it could illuminate this general idea, and it stated: “My sources say no.” I asked Berlatsky the same question and he responded, “It's really just the idea of writing nonsense sonnets; I read his book 88 Sonnets and thought, "I could do that!" There are also a couple of direct lifts (I think he mentions borax for example, and I stole that for one title.)”
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Then I asked Berlatsky what was the hardest part about writing Gnarly Thumbs? “The hardest part was actually after it was done and a press (not Anxiety) expressed interest. I was super excited since I hadn't thought anyone would print it, and the editor seemed enthusiastic. Then I got the proofs, and they had taken out words and lines without checking with me. Apparently he felt that the lines were too long (?!) and that readers would be confused (?!) so he basically rewrote them. In some cases, they weren't even sonnets anymore I objected and we went back and forth and eventually he killed the project because I wanted the poems the way I wanted them. It was very distressing and upsetting. But then Cody at Anxiety said he loved it just the way it was, and now it is in the world, and I am glad I refused to settle!”
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Finally, I asked Magic 8 Ball what does Berlatsky hope readers will take away from this book? It responded, “Better not tell you now…”
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…. but then Berlatsky himself replied, “I hope people laugh? The book is about how I feel sometimes overwhelmed with jargon and earnest effusions and the way that we're all constantly bombarded with marketing copy and demands and word slurry. I find that alienating and enraging and also amusing and exhilarating and weird. So I hope people will share my experience of being bashed about by language and bashing back.”
Jason Heroux lives in Kingston, Ontario, and was the Poet Laureate for the City of Kingston from 2019 to 2022. His most recent publications include Like a Trophy from the Sun (Guernica Editions, 2024) and My Life as a Notebook (above/ground press, 2025).
