New Brunswick poet Sharon McCartney’s fifth collection uses weightlifting as its central metaphor to explore both interiority and relationships. McCartney’s poetic voice is direct, confessional, and, at times, philosophical, examining the nuances of family dynamics, romance, friendship, and illness. These lyric narratives are structured in single-stanza bursts of emotion and infused with plenty of raw vulnerability, as in the strong opening poem, “Deadlift,” and the sequence titled “Married Man.”

The first half of the collection is ordered according to the subject of bodybuilding, examining the paradoxical notion that pain creates strength and power – both literally and figuratively – in scar tissue. The second half, the “Married Man” series, is the stronger of the two. These poems explore a romance with directness and emotional punch, using more concrete language than can be found in some of the poems in the first section. This specificity pays off in immediacy and impact.  

McCartney has a good ear for the sonic potential in language and writes with an astute consciousness of sound, from alliteration in poems like “Getting Lean” to internal rhyme (“treadmill’s thread” in “Cardio,” for example). However, awkward and clunky language impedes the flow – both aural and narrative – of some poems. In “My Favourite Bodybuilder,” words like “eschews,” “intermingling,” “betokens,” and “cataclysm” detract from more than they enhance the poem’s propulsion.

Similarly, abstractions at times diminish Hard Ass’s power. McCartney’s voice is strongest when emotionally bold, using concise, sharp images, such as “squad cars in the driveway, / sedative syringes, a night ambulance strobing / the red windows. Our stone-faced mother / so calm under her beehive.” Too often, though, vague language proves distancing, when the poems would be strengthened by more specificity, rather than the “anxiety of / incompleteness” or “binary logic of groundlessness.”

Hard Ass’s greatest assets are its narrative voice and powerful vulnerability; push through the ambiguity and enjoy its emotional muscle.