Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Women's Studies. ON A CLEAR DAY, the second full-length book by Brooklyn- based musician, poet, and essayist Jasmine Dreame Wagner, looks toward horizons past and present, natural and synthetic, individual and communal. Over the course of this formidable project, readers are welcomed into a perspective refreshingly nuanced and unpretentious, particularly when it comes to those themes familiar to so many Americans—post-9/11 national identity, industrial detritus, the 20th Century's long goodbye, and the ever-present click-bait listicle. Wagner's keen eye for journalistic detail finds a brilliant counterpart in the inquisitiveness of her dynamic imagination, punctuating stretches of awestruck calm with pointed exclamations for action. Consisting of both lyric essays and poems, ON A CLEAR DAY is as concerned with blurring genres as it is with breaking away from their constraints—formally, as well as what readers expect of these genres, be it philosophical tract, memoir, or meditation. Wagner's writing can, in a blink, alternate from the noisiness of urban dwelling to melodic, high lyricism, capturing the rhythms of verse and bouncy optimism of contemporary ad language with ease. The effect of these tonal shifts and disparate genre combinations is often sublime, highlighting the astonishing intellect and skill of the author, while adding only more power to this singular text.
