The ascendance of the e-book has simplified the process of self-publication. The rigors of printing, marketing, and distribution have been vastly alleviated, as various online services have emerged to format e-books and disseminate them among major e-book stores. The cost of these services is minimal, at least in comparison to traditional self-publishing. Although most of the contemporary literati remains unfamiliar with this ever-expanding world of digital publishing, it has already sustained a tremendous proliferation of self-published material.

My adventures in the realm of independent poetry e-books began as a consequence of international travel. Unable to procure a more traditional, paper-bound poetry book, I decided to avail myself of the opportunity and explore the online world of poetry that I knew to be copious but often disregarded. I ventured into iBooks with two criteria. First, I desired to select a book priced at or under $3. The foremost poets, presses, and magazines of today readily saturate their anemic readership. If aspiring poets wish to penetrate this dominant discourse, they should, at the very least, price competitively. Secondly, I had resolved not to purchase a book that did not provide at least one poem of interest in its “free preview.”

Almost all of the independent poetry e-books I encountered possessed engaging cover art. Few, however, contained compelling poetry. Most of the authors wrote in a pseudo-formalistic style of clumsy rhyme and non-existent meter. Their work was neither technically well-executed nor intellectually dynamic, though some of the authors went so far as to market themselves as “rogue” intellectuals. Thankfully, these books tended to be priced between $5 and $10—sufficiently high to deter the ambitious (and technologically adroit) reader of poetry from the excessive disappointment promised by the “previews.”

After many hours of e-shelf sleuthing, I settled upon Jessica Hahn’s Elemental as the subject of my forthcoming review. Hahn’s work had best satisfied my dual criteria. Her book was free and had stoked my curiosity with its opening poem (available via preview) entitled “In the Spirit of Finding Something.”

Hahn’s poetry provides the ravings of a wanderer. She herself lived as a vagrant “hopping freight trains and squatting abandoned buildings” throughout two years of travel across America. The “wanderlust” documented in her poetry is confessional, voicing the deep-rooted confusions of an itinerant memory. At times, her work appears to merely rant. Yet Hahn recasts such disjointedness into the reflective socio-aesthetic assertion: “How can I not ramble?/This is the fate for those born/with what they look for” (6).

Poems such as “In the Spirit of Finding Something,” “Invocation,” and “Looking into Origins” thoughtfully explore the intersections between perception and memory. These poems endeavor not only to record a post-modern odyssey, but also to “live in” the mythology that they render (39). These works evince a subtle poignancy—they provide a “bundle of quirks & oddball smirks” that playfully weaves uncertainties into a collection of recollected attitudes (12).

Despite these moments of flourish, many of Hahn’s poems do not rise to such introspective heights. Much of Elemental records, in rather angry language, the speaker’s encounters with an underbelly culture of intense drug abuse, HIV/AIDS, and premature death. These poems do not provide much beyond highly personalized narrative. They offer gritty snapshots of punk sub-culture, rather than the meticulous reconsideration and evocation that resound in philosophically expressive art.

Unlike most of the self-published e-book volumes previewed in preparation for this review, Elemental must be commended for its thoughtfulness and fluidity. Nonetheless, its poems are not visionary. E-books provide a promising medium for the newest front of the misunderstood and underappreciated. Yet such works, if they exist, have been obscured by the tremendous volume of production enabled by non-restricted, low-cost publishing. Now, perhaps more than ever, readers require a reliable editorial process that will filter the most accomplished and innovative of work from the static that engulfs it.