What is it like to live in a house alcoved in mystery and keep your soul as hidden as the Hebrew scroll concealed in the tiny Madonna by your front door? Or to be drawn—ghost hands guiding her/ to light tallow candles—to rites you don’t understand?
How does it feel to suddenly learn that your grandmother, who lived just down the road, held very different beliefs than those you were raised with? Or to see, in a flash, the significance of the symbols and mystifying objects a favorite cousin showed you but refused to explain?
And what surprises await when you set out in your car to uncover your own blood secrets, by tracing the route you suspect your umpteen-times-great grandfather took to a mountain village close to the one where you live to this day?
In poems laden with enigma and insight, three New Mexico writers explore the emotional and physical journeys of the secret Jews who, four centuries ago, fled to the New World to escape the Inquisition and those of their descendants who have recently discovered their long-hidden roots.
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In Joan Roberta Ryan’s debut collection, Shakespeare’s dark lady writes her own sonnet, Cinderella reveals the sexual snare she and her godmother set for Prince Charming. And a pile of outgrown Barbie dolls lie about “Bosch-naked,” menaced by demons from The Garden of Earthly Delights. Here, the real and the dream world converge in a broad array of poems about—and often narrated by—the “bad girls” and other mysterious or misunderstood women from art, literature, and life.
Many offer new takes—some witty, some chilling—on the courtesans, shrews, schemers and liars we know from stories and paintings. Others illuminate the real and imaginary figures who people the poet’s own world—from a mad sister she sees in her dreams as a night-blooming cactus to the enigmatic mother who slipped away “memory by memory, / word by word” until “when the final / syllable left, you followed.” And a scattering of irreverent love poems blends all these encounters into an insightful — and often erotic — celebration of the ups, downs and quirky twists of a long-term relationship.
Many offer new takes—some witty, some chilling—on the courtesans, shrews, schemers and liars we know from stories and paintings. Others illuminate the real and imaginary figures who people the poet’s own world—from a mad sister she sees in her dreams as a night-blooming cactus to the enigmatic mother who slipped away “memory by memory, / word by word” until “when the final / syllable left, you followed.” And a scattering of irreverent love poems blends all these encounters into an insightful — and often erotic — celebration of the ups, downs and quirky twists of a long-term relationship.
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