White Sea: Poems

by Cleopatra Mathis

“Cleopatra Mathis . . . brandishes the gifts of a talented poet who has hit her stride.”— The New York Times Book Review “As long as we have Mathis’ clarity of imagination, the intricacy and breadth of her engagement with the world and the depth of her meeting of others, we’ll have the warmth to help us deal with our own centers of cold.”—A.R. Ammons Strong, unsentimentally emotional sixth collection set on the frigid shores of Provincetown.

Genres: Poetry

94 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Keith Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply serious poems engaging the most difficult of subjects. Mathis is a careful, exacting poet. Here's a thing I wrote about this book many years ago:

https://annarborobserver.com/articles...

[Sandra Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

(I apologize for the length of this review, but it's warranted.) It's rare that one finds a collection of poetry where every poem moves you. Somewhere (and I don’t remember where) I read the poem “Death of a Gull.” I was so moved by it and was compelled to get the collection. How did the poet become the gull, and how did she carry the reader to be the gull … in the hard transition to its end? The White Sea poems are so evocative, one after the other.

“Salt” … I cannot stop reading this poem, the first one in this collection. Every now and then I must go read it again to remind me of life.

The exchange with her grandfather in “Cotton.” So powerful, one of the most vivid reads taking us to the past of slavery in this country—in Louisiana. “Envoy” … poet unveiled in companionship with the self-serving crows and her sour dog. “Disappearances” … oh, lost things and their meanings.

“… the white sea of everything will sweep us away.” and “… wields its neddled air ….”

Oh my! “Calling Back.” Heartbreaking. “The Sea Chews Everything Up.” Yes. Its power is the calm. Its ruthlessness is its beauty. I love this poem as much as I love the sea. “The Release” … one of or the best poems on death and loss that I’ve read, in three parts. I do not know who Linda was to the poet, but the whole second section of this collection sings of Linda and her departure, how loss speaks to all of us.“January” … an exquisite poem.

“I think I have not understood decay // or the seed at the heart of it.” The seed at the heart of these poems.

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems of Cleopatra Mathis are beautifully crafted. To read them is like trying on the jewelry of a master silversmith; each poem is a reflection of the poet that I held against my own skin as if it were made especially for me.