Poetry Unbound

Episode: Kimberly Blaeser – “my journal records the vestiture of doppelgangers”

Host: Pádraig Ó Tuama
Date: January 12, 2026

Episode Overview

In this reflective episode of Poetry Unbound, host Pádraig Ó Tuama immerses listeners in Kimberly Blaeser’s evocative poem, “my journal records the vestiture of doppelgangers.” Ó Tuama explores how the poem captures the beauty and interconnectedness of the natural world, the limitations and splendors of language, and the idea of the self mirrored in other creatures. With thoughtful etymological explorations and close reading, the episode enriches any listener’s experience of Blaeser’s work and its invitation to praise, wonder, and attentive presence.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Vignette: Watching the World with Wonder

• Ó Tuama opens with a personal anecdote about leaving blueberries for cardinals in Hawaii, only to delight instead in the repeated visits of two geckos.
  • “I felt like time expanded and my whole day sometimes was centered around waiting for my friends, the geckos, with their little eyes, to look and to taste the sweetness.” [00:57]

2. Complete Reading of the Poem

• The full text of Blaeser’s poem is shared, immersing listeners in imagery of loons, mayflies, vultures, squirrels, and beavers—each scene layered with wonder, observation, and the challenge of capturing experience in language.

3. On the Title: Etymology and Significance

• Ó Tuama unpacks the unusual and rich title:
  • “Vestiture” means clothing.
  • “Doppelganger” (German: “double goer”) refers to one who resembles another, sometimes with supernatural or fateful implications.
• He notes that “my journal records” positions the journal almost as an active witness, not just a passive repository.
  • “It’s like your journal is reading you back and reminding [you].” [05:39]
  • The etymology of “record”:
    • “Re” for repeated
    • “cord” from the Latin for heart (cor/cordis)
    • “So what we have in a record is a journal. Record is a daily rehearting through writing of the clothes of doppelgangers.” [06:10]

4. Themes of Love, Observation, and the Limits of Language

• The poem is described as infused with love:
  • “There’s love everywhere in this poem – love from the heart and love for a practice of everyday observing and loving the world.” [07:09]
• Observation becomes a practice of both intimacy and presence.
• Ó Tuama notes the impossibility of language to fully capture experience, quoting the poem:
  • “My journal stutters with a squirrel story bigger than words.” [12:51]

5. Praise and Song: Poetic Devices

• The use of “O” in the lines (“O checkerboard bed and lifted wing. O tiny gray passenger…”):
  • “In poetry, you call these an apostrophe. And they lift the poem into the realm of song and praise.” [08:22]
  • The poem is framed as a hymn to the everyday, not a prayer to the divine, but a song of close attention.

6. The Mirroring of Self and Creature

• Ó Tuama focuses on the shift from observation to identification:
  • Who is the doppelganger?
  • Noting lines like “We catch our breath. Now it scurries ahead”, he ponders:
    • “So who’s the we that changed to the we there?... my first impulse in reading this is to think that the we was the poet and the squirrel…” [11:44]
• The poem’s speaker identifies with the animals, suggesting a porousness between human and nonhuman, observer and observed.

7. Etymology and Layered Meaning

• The word “missive” (from the Latin mittere, to send) is discussed, interpreting the journal entries as messages in a reciprocal, ongoing exchange between self and world.
  • “So much, so much love, so much life, so much vibrancy is being sent back and forth. It isn’t only the poet who is writing missives. Somehow the world is.” [09:42]

8. Poetic Technique: Sound and Form

• Blaeser’s use of alliteration (e.g., “moult, mate”) and sentence variety (short and interrupted lines) are highlighted.
  • “The language work in this poem is so rich, and I feel like one of the things that this poem is doing is pointing beyond itself using technically brilliant language to point beyond language.” [15:43]
• The form mirrors both the limitations and the urgency to praise the world.

9. The Courage and Knowledge of Small Creatures

• The swimming squirrel embodies both vulnerability and bravery:
  • “We are never done, it says with a body tiny enough to know the world is large, it says with a courage I am greedy to learn.” [13:12]

10. The Final Question and Reflection

• The closing question—“Who, I ask, is the blissful beaver devouring each yellow water lily, if not our doppelganger?”—invites the listener to consider themselves as part of the natural world, not separate from it.
  • The “little rooms” of words are humble in seasons of abundance:
    • “What little rooms are words in these seasons of plenty?” [17:45]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Journaling as Active Witness:
  • “It’s like your journal is reading you back and reminding [you]. And so the journal is a record in itself, because the brain can often feel like it’s hard to hang on to so much information.” [05:39]
• On the Practice of Writing Missives:
  • “So much, so much love, so much life, so much vibrancy is being sent back and forth. It isn’t only the poet who is writing missives. Somehow the world is.” [09:42]
• On Creaturely Recognition:
  • “We catch our breath. Now it scurries ahead… my first impulse in reading this is to think that the we was the poet and the squirrel, you know, the swimming squirrel, understandably exhausted. And this swimming squirrel… this poem is saying, yes, you can [believe it].” [11:44]
• On Smallness and Bravery:
  • “We are never done, it says, with a body tiny enough to know the world is large, it says with a courage I am greedy to learn.” [13:12]
• On the Limitation and Plenty of Words:
  • “What little rooms are words in these seasons of plenty?” [17:45]

Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:02] — Personal story about geckos, time, and waiting
• [02:00] — Full reading of Blaeser’s poem
• [05:39] — Reflection on the agency of the journal
• [06:10] — Etymology of “record” and “journal”
• [07:09] — Love in observation and practice
• [08:22] — Poem’s apostrophes and song
• [09:42] — The missive as message from and to the world
• [11:44] — Creaturely kinship and the “we” in the poem
• [13:12] — The courage and wisdom of small animals
• [15:43] — Technical brilliance of language and form
• [17:45] — Final lines pondering the limits and abundance of language

Summary

This episode of Poetry Unbound invites listeners into a meditative engagement with Kimberly Blaeser’s “my journal records the vestiture of doppelgangers,” a poem overflowing with praise for the seen and unseen world. Through Ó Tuama’s gentle, etymology-rich analysis, the episode explores how journaling, attentive presence, and poetic language serve as both an archive and a humble offering—a way to participate in the world’s “seasons of plenty,” even as words themselves prove to be “little rooms” too small for all they hold.