Red Signature: Poems

by Mary Leader (different)

Contents: Middle Daughter's Song
Probate
After My Brother Baruch's Bar Mitzvah / Last Night
Trimmed with Eyelet Lace
Doris Ann's Ash Street March
Colter's Elegy
Schoolteacher's Ditty
Horse Chestnut
They Cruised the Rappahannock Early in the Spring
Linear
Unheroic Couplets
Pentacle
Chromatic Scales Against Impossible Loves
Boy Unobscured on the Highest Riser
Girl at Sewing Machine
The Shooting Party
To a Woman with a Satchel
The Visited Stream
Four Fountains
Girls' Names
To a Girl with a Satchel
Rife Sill
24 Doors
Both
Lulling
My Son Ted
Her Door
Oklahoma Passover
The Sign of the Cohens Carved on a Gravestone
Photographs (for our children)
Proverbs (for the confectioner's apprentice)
Poem to Gregory Orr
Among Things Held at Arm's Length
Poem

Genres: Poetry

67 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Sarah B · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this obviously was a very short book to read and in some ways it was more challenging to read than a long novel. Why? Because I like things to make sense so I can understand it and some of the "poems" in here I really didn't understand. And that left me feeling very confused and somewhat lost.

I will list a few examples here:

Pentacle: (page 23): many random words in this poem are written in CAPITAL letters. Like that. But why certain words?? That includes words like "Truth, Lie, Sprout Vines, Den, Clown, Sists, Sess, Kiss, Names"... There are more after that too. But why those words? Is it supposed to be some secret code or something? Why the word "clown"? There are no other circus words. I don't get it.

Colter's Elegy: (page 11): this was written by a Michael Colter. He is making out a will because he is in jail and he is going to refuse food. Starve himself for ten days. But is this Colter a real person? This book of poems seems to be filled with names of other people. So are these people real or are these characters the author created? And if they are real, why is she reprinting what they wrote as hers?? I don't understand that at all. And many people have successfully fasted longer than ten days without passing away. Does that Colter man know that?? But a will is not a poem.

There is also a few postcards in here and a recipe too. Not poems.

And what did Colter do that he had to go to jail?? And what had happened to him later? Did he actually die from starvation as he had planned or no?? The book doesn't say. At all.

None of these poems in here rhyme at all. Very disappointing!

They Cruised the Rappahannock Early in the Spring: (16): this poem apparently attempts to tell a story but it's all scattered all over the place. It starts about keeping a wedding ring safe while being on a boat and swimming on said boat, but it's full of very disjointed segments that make no sense at all. Like it says that if you lose your jewelry the ship's crew will give you a speckled mirror on a crooked nail. What?? Is the mirror supposed to help you find the ring somehow? Wouldn't scuba gear be better?? Then the very same poem starts blabbing about passing out geography books, hooks (fishing hooks maybe), losing a horse named Red Wing and then goes on about names.. but it's all very weird.

Person, why didn't you take care of Red Wing??!! If you were a responsible horse owner than Hal wouldn't be selling your horse!! Instead you are galavanting around on ships out at sea and losing jewelry. Sounds careless.

And this line from the same poem: "Did you remember your Lithium"? Are they talking about batteries?? Lithium batteries??

Absolutely no sense whatsoever!!

Then there were a few "love poems" in the middle of the book I had no interest in.

There are horses shown on the cover. Three horses..which is why I checked this out of the library. But there are certainly no horse centered poems in here (or other animal related ones either).

Besides a one line mention of Red Wing, there is another one that mentions a horse. "The Shooting Party". It's apparently some type of bird hunt where the poem seems to describe a painting? And it includes a horse. And a cat. A bird.

And my favorite thing in here is NOT a poem but a story. On page 25. "Boy Unobscured on the Highest Riser". Basically it's about imagination. But it's certainly not a poem.

I really wasn't impressed by any of these poems at all.

Some of the stuff in here used strange formats on the page. Repetitive words to make odd shapes of the black and white areas. But again it made no sense. I don't understand the point of that. What are you trying to say by doing that??

It's just weird.... And kind of dull too...

Glad this is a library book so I can return it!!

[Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

How different the concept of a collection was then! I love seeing how this book collection takes permission to write on so many forms, through so many different time periods. What holds this book together through this vast range is possibly how focused on “subject” each poem is. And while some forms REALLY resonated with me, others REALLY did not. Ultimately, it was nice to spend time with this history.

[Kendalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely loved some poems, didn't care for others, and some made no sense at all.( Her format is really different and a bit confusing.)

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Leader is a rock-star and lives in a cool house. Once at a party I stretched my back on her guest bedroom floor and then talked to a guy from Utah about his toddler. I like the poems here whose forms are most artificial, which condense and clip away topiary like to get things into these forms.

[Tess · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to leave an understated message after that rating, but I'd like to recommend this. She has a very different take on how to put poems together...