Are You There by Samantha Fain
Team Fahmidan Review
In Are You There, Indiana poet Samantha Fain takes readers on a journey through the fractured spaces of contemporary life, where grief, pop culture, technology, and self-awareness collide. With a deft hand and a sharp wit, Fain refracts the modern condition through a kaleidoscope of lyricism, offering a collection that is at once haunting, humorous, and brimming with startling new language. From quantum physics to digital relationships, Fain’s work probes the complex and often disorienting experiences of the digital age, layering emotion and intellect in a way that is both playful and profound.
The poems in Are You There are wide-ranging in both form and subject, yet they share a common thread of questioning, exploration, and uncertainty. Through the lens of these fragmented and fluid moments, Fain confronts the ways in which we search for meaning in a world defined by digital connections, fleeting relationships, and the disembodiment of our increasingly virtual existence. Titles like Elegy for Faith and Elegy for the Outside evoke the loss of traditional anchors—be they spiritual or physical—that once offered stability. But Fain does not just mourn these losses; she subverts them, embracing the chaos and absurdity that often arise in their wake.
One of the collection’s defining features is Fain’s ability to blend the personal with the cosmic, creating a unique space where individual experience intersects with the larger, often incomprehensible forces of the universe. In Schrödinger’s Poetica and A Computer Falls in Love With Itself, she taps into the language of quantum mechanics and artificial intelligence, using these concepts not just as metaphors but as the backdrop for her poetic inquiry. In doing so, she allows the language of science and technology to inform the emotional landscape of her poems, challenging readers to rethink how these forces shape our understanding of self and connection.
Fain’s poetry also excels in capturing the dissonance and alienation of the modern experience. Poems like @, An Abundance of Sorry, and One Day I Won’t Be Able to Afford My Misery explore the complexities of digital relationships—how we navigate intimacy and isolation through screens, how we communicate without truly connecting. Through these works, Fain grapples with the paradoxes of a world where we are constantly linked yet increasingly fragmented. The poem Ode to My Phone, Who Thinks All My Friendships Never End perfectly encapsulates this tension, humorously acknowledging the persistence of technology even in the face of human imperfection and impermanence.
While Are You There is undeniably steeped in the digital age, it is equally a meditation on the emotional and existential crises that accompany it. In A Timeline of Flowers and Those Petaled Days, Fain reflects on the fleeting nature of experience and memory, capturing the fragile beauty of life’s most poignant moments. Her poetry is deeply attuned to the small and large tragedies of existence, from personal loss to the cultural disintegration that seems to surround us. Yet, even in these elegies, there is an element of defiance, a desire to find new ways of being and existing in the world.
Fain’s ability to craft poems that are simultaneously sharp and tender is exemplified in works like My Best Friend Catfished Me & All I Got Was This Lousy Poem and When I Think of Us as a Natural Disaster, I Mean a Disambiguation. These pieces blend humor and melancholy, often surprising the reader with unexpected shifts in tone. The blend of sardonic humor and brutal self-awareness that Fain employs gives her work a fresh and engaging energy, one that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally resonant.
Ultimately, Are You There is a collection that defies easy categorization. Fain’s poetic voice is irreverent, experimental, and deeply engaged with the complexities of modern life. Whether she is interrogating the mysteries of quantum physics or the loneliness of the digital world, Fain’s poems pulse with a vibrant energy, offering new language for the ineffable experiences of our time. With Are You There, Samantha Fain has crafted a bold and original collection that is as intellectually stimulating as it is emotionally raw, a work that lingers long after the last page is turned.
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