sara marie nason
Biography
sara marie nason grew up in Wirral, New Brunswick. They received a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Sociology, and a Major in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing in 2019, and a Bachelor of Education, both from St. Thomas University in 2020. They have received the Robert Clayton Casto Poetry Prize for Poetry twice, in 2018 and 2019. nason currently works as a youth support worker full-time. Outside of work, they engage in queer-based activism and have artistic pursuits aside from poetry, which include drawing and turning paint chip samples into laminated bookmarks. nason currently resides in Fredericton with their Pet Axolotl named Kip-Kip. Their first chapbook will be released by Anstruther Press in summer 2021.
Poem: "policy around poverty"
take me to the vegan-leather, hard-wood floor
three-story homesense-ad living room of your life
place me round the table in an ergonomic swivel-chair
force me to speak a language you’ll understand
our tongues clash: mine rests heavy with mildew
yours dry-cleans encounters with chlorine & bleach
you catch my gutter syllables mid-air & pop them
like dollar-store soap bubbles from last year
my words mean nothing until you can scrub them
& melt raw uncensored into an appetizing form
Published in Flourish Zine, 2020.
Republished here with author's permission.
three-story homesense-ad living room of your life
place me round the table in an ergonomic swivel-chair
force me to speak a language you’ll understand
our tongues clash: mine rests heavy with mildew
yours dry-cleans encounters with chlorine & bleach
you catch my gutter syllables mid-air & pop them
like dollar-store soap bubbles from last year
my words mean nothing until you can scrub them
& melt raw uncensored into an appetizing form
Published in Flourish Zine, 2020.
Republished here with author's permission.
Critical Analysis: Class Clash
Caelin Sullivan (ACPA Managing Editor 2021)
sara marie nason’s “policy around poverty” captures the way that middle-class individuals demand that the working-class mould themselves to fit an ideal way of living. The narrator in this poem, a working-class individual, describes the ways that they cannot relate to others. Throughout the poem, the narrator puts the reader into the perspective of the one they are addressing. The reader becomes the middle-class person and is forced to consider how they have behaved in similar interactions throughout their lives.
The poem begins with vegan-leather and hardwood floors, both items that suggest the reader has the financial capability to own these items and has a superiority about it. Specifying vegan-leather rather than regular leather shows a perceived morality on the part of the reader. Common in middle-class vegan spaces, there is often shame surrounding not making what is perceived to be the most ethical choice, even if that choice is not affordable or practical for many.
The first two stanzas are written in a way that suggests agency, as the narrator says, “take me” (1) and “place me” (3), telling the reader what to do. The addition of “force me” (4) in the second stanza, however, shows that choice and agency in this poem are an illusion on the part of the working-class individual. “take” and “place” are verbs that render the speaker as an object in the eyes of the reader. The speaker in turn, becomes a prop in the “homesense-ad living room,” something to make the reader feel more interesting, or self-important.
“our tongues clash: mine rests heavy with mildew/ yours dry-cleans encounters with chlorine & bleach” (5-6): are lines that play with the physical effects of poverty on the body, and how language interactions are policed. Affordable housing is often unsuitable for living, containing mold and mildew inside the structure itself, which over time can have negative effects on the respiratory system, and one’s overall physical and mental health. The word “encounters” functions as a double entendre; chlorine and bleach are items that are used to clean counters, and the narrator describes the reader cleaning the speaker’s language “encounters” in much the same way. “you catch my gutter syllables mid-air & pop them” (7) describes the action of someone cutting the speaker off mid-sentence- correcting grammar and vocabulary choices.
In the final couplet, the verb “melt” suggests a chemical shift in matter. “raw uncensored” shows that while the narrator speaks from the heart or off the cuff, the reader tailors and censors every interaction into something appealing; every word is cold and calculated. The reader melts the speaker’s words into what they want to hear. That is the policy around poverty, that you have to be appealing to be accepted and cared for.
Works Cited (for analysis):
sara marie nason. “policy around poverty.” Flourish Zine 2020.
sara marie nason’s “policy around poverty” captures the way that middle-class individuals demand that the working-class mould themselves to fit an ideal way of living. The narrator in this poem, a working-class individual, describes the ways that they cannot relate to others. Throughout the poem, the narrator puts the reader into the perspective of the one they are addressing. The reader becomes the middle-class person and is forced to consider how they have behaved in similar interactions throughout their lives.
The poem begins with vegan-leather and hardwood floors, both items that suggest the reader has the financial capability to own these items and has a superiority about it. Specifying vegan-leather rather than regular leather shows a perceived morality on the part of the reader. Common in middle-class vegan spaces, there is often shame surrounding not making what is perceived to be the most ethical choice, even if that choice is not affordable or practical for many.
The first two stanzas are written in a way that suggests agency, as the narrator says, “take me” (1) and “place me” (3), telling the reader what to do. The addition of “force me” (4) in the second stanza, however, shows that choice and agency in this poem are an illusion on the part of the working-class individual. “take” and “place” are verbs that render the speaker as an object in the eyes of the reader. The speaker in turn, becomes a prop in the “homesense-ad living room,” something to make the reader feel more interesting, or self-important.
“our tongues clash: mine rests heavy with mildew/ yours dry-cleans encounters with chlorine & bleach” (5-6): are lines that play with the physical effects of poverty on the body, and how language interactions are policed. Affordable housing is often unsuitable for living, containing mold and mildew inside the structure itself, which over time can have negative effects on the respiratory system, and one’s overall physical and mental health. The word “encounters” functions as a double entendre; chlorine and bleach are items that are used to clean counters, and the narrator describes the reader cleaning the speaker’s language “encounters” in much the same way. “you catch my gutter syllables mid-air & pop them” (7) describes the action of someone cutting the speaker off mid-sentence- correcting grammar and vocabulary choices.
In the final couplet, the verb “melt” suggests a chemical shift in matter. “raw uncensored” shows that while the narrator speaks from the heart or off the cuff, the reader tailors and censors every interaction into something appealing; every word is cold and calculated. The reader melts the speaker’s words into what they want to hear. That is the policy around poverty, that you have to be appealing to be accepted and cared for.
Works Cited (for analysis):
sara marie nason. “policy around poverty.” Flourish Zine 2020.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
nason, sara marie. “Critical Analysis: The Misery of Quiet Nights.” Atlantic Canadian Poets Archive: Tadhg Saxa Cooper.
---. “faerie.” Flourish Zine 2020.
---. “hiraeth.” Outright Ezine, 2018, victoriapridesociety.org.
---. “i’m tired (but) i’m so lucky (but) i’m tired.” Marsh Blue Violet: Queer Poetry from New Brunswick. periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, edited by R.M Vaughan, 18 June 2020, periodicityjournal.blogspot.com.
---. “monologue.” Marsh Blue Violet: Queer Poetry from New Brunswick. periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, edited by R.M Vaughan, 18 June 2020, periodicityjournal.blogspot.com.
---. “playing doctor.” Marsh Blue Violet: Queer Poetry from New Brunswick. periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, edited by R.M Vaughan, 18 June 2020, periodicityjournal.blogspot.com.
---. “policy around poverty.” Flourish Zine 2020.
---. “raw.” Feels Zine: Fear 7 (2019) pp. 36.
---. “ruler.” elm + ampersand, 1 Apr 2020. facebook.com.
---. “325°, 15 minutes.” Feels Zine: Calm 6 (2018): pp. 33.
Secondary Sources
elm & ampersand. “Al Cusack & Sara Nason.” 18 Feb 2020, anchor.fm.
“Flourish 2020 Zine Gets a Reprint.” Grid City Magazine, 16 Dec 2020, gridcitymagazine.com.
Kitts, Jamie & Nason, Sara. “Casto Prize 2018 Winner Sara Nason.” Atlantic Canadian Poets Archive: Wording Around, 18 Jun 2018, stu-acpa.ca.
St. Thomas University. “Celebrating Excellence: Creative Writing Prize Winners Announced.” 2019, stu.ca.
---. “Department of English Newsletter Spring 2018.” stu.ca.
---. “Sara Nason Presents Thesis Research at Graduate Studies Conference at MIT.” 2019, stu.ca.
---. “Top Honours in Creative Writing.” 2018, stu.ca.
nason, sara marie. “Critical Analysis: The Misery of Quiet Nights.” Atlantic Canadian Poets Archive: Tadhg Saxa Cooper.
---. “faerie.” Flourish Zine 2020.
---. “hiraeth.” Outright Ezine, 2018, victoriapridesociety.org.
---. “i’m tired (but) i’m so lucky (but) i’m tired.” Marsh Blue Violet: Queer Poetry from New Brunswick. periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, edited by R.M Vaughan, 18 June 2020, periodicityjournal.blogspot.com.
---. “monologue.” Marsh Blue Violet: Queer Poetry from New Brunswick. periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, edited by R.M Vaughan, 18 June 2020, periodicityjournal.blogspot.com.
---. “playing doctor.” Marsh Blue Violet: Queer Poetry from New Brunswick. periodicities: a journal of poetry and poetics, edited by R.M Vaughan, 18 June 2020, periodicityjournal.blogspot.com.
---. “policy around poverty.” Flourish Zine 2020.
---. “raw.” Feels Zine: Fear 7 (2019) pp. 36.
---. “ruler.” elm + ampersand, 1 Apr 2020. facebook.com.
---. “325°, 15 minutes.” Feels Zine: Calm 6 (2018): pp. 33.
Secondary Sources
elm & ampersand. “Al Cusack & Sara Nason.” 18 Feb 2020, anchor.fm.
“Flourish 2020 Zine Gets a Reprint.” Grid City Magazine, 16 Dec 2020, gridcitymagazine.com.
Kitts, Jamie & Nason, Sara. “Casto Prize 2018 Winner Sara Nason.” Atlantic Canadian Poets Archive: Wording Around, 18 Jun 2018, stu-acpa.ca.
St. Thomas University. “Celebrating Excellence: Creative Writing Prize Winners Announced.” 2019, stu.ca.
---. “Department of English Newsletter Spring 2018.” stu.ca.
---. “Sara Nason Presents Thesis Research at Graduate Studies Conference at MIT.” 2019, stu.ca.
---. “Top Honours in Creative Writing.” 2018, stu.ca.
