Charles spoke with about the relationship between gender and language, how words are often hard for her (really), and the many ways readers can interpret her work. 'Being a millennial, there’s something to me kind of charming about dismissing big things.'Īll of this - the unsettling and inventive language, the questioning of myths and systems, the appreciation for plants and animals, and the flippant humor - makes for a surprising, nuanced, and beautiful collection. 'There’s a certain strain of millennial… dismissiveness throughout,' she says. It captures a sense of loss - and it also makes for some pretty funny turns of phrase. The old style, she says, highlights the ways in which trans people have been left out of written narratives, both fictionalized and historical. (Sometimes, it's enough to just sound good.)Ĭharles' choice to write in Chaucerian English, as it turns out, wasn’t just to befuddle readers, either. Ripe with natural imagery, surprising puns, and political statements that are jarring both in their truth and placement, 'feeld' challenges the idea that writing about nature is only for straight, white, cis men, and that poetry has to mean something. Much more than an exercise in toying with readers’ emotions, Charles’ new collection 'feeld,' released today by Milkweed Editions, is a profound body of work that’s thought-provoking and wholly visceral.

'Please don't read the book if that's gonna be the case. Sure, she wanted to provoke some anxiety by writing 'considering' as 'considrynge' and 'women' as 'wymon,' but 'hopefully not actual induced panic or something,' she says. A book of poems written in 14th century English - think Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' - might sound daunting, but poet Jos Charles doesn’t want you to be afraid.

Jos charles