A Mass Choir of Little Things seems sculpted by decay. Poet and percussionist Ockert Greeff examines physical evidence of impending disaster and recent loss, from leftover clothes to leathery faces. Bodies and landscapes bear wounds of time and the promise of finality. In one poem, his mother giggles like a girl; in the next, she cannot recognize him. But Greeffâs sparse, vivid language also finds life within endings. He imagines his elderly mom as a baby turtle wading into the water; he chronicles organisms that persist. An orange pickup truck in the desert, a swimmer lifting his arms to the sky. Greeffâs preoccupation with âthe dark mass that is taking us allâ reveals a gentle attention to existence â the rhythms of a haircut, the silences of a funeral â figuring death as one part of the story.
Announcing the winner of the 2024 Vallum Chapbook Award:
Ockert Greeff, for his chapbook: âA Mass Choir of Little Thingsâ Excerpt from chapbook: Â Â Â * Â Â * Â Â * I let go of my yellow lunchbox Watch it swirl away in the dark water Past the boy who cannot give up He is swimming, lifting his arms up High out of the water, […]