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Black Hope
“Whether her subject is mental illness, the oppression of one human being by another, or the constantly-cast shadow of our mortality, Marsha de la O’s resilient, unpretentious, sharply intelligent and unsentimental voice speaks to us of what we need to know. This is a disturbing and memorable book.”
―Chase Twichell, from the foreword
―Chase Twichell, from the foreword
- GenresPoetry
75 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1997
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March 15, 2015
The foreword by poet Chase Twichell says that good poems should tell the truth. But ask a dozen people what the truth is and you'll get a dozen different answers colored by their experiences, their environment, and what they choose to see.
These poems are for the most part street tough, brutal, gritty, not pretty. They're about survival, and they're about letting go when survival isn't possible. These poems don't blink or flinch against the cruelty in the world that people inflict on one another and upon themselves. These poems aren't for people looking for rainbows, roses and rhymes, rather for granite, hot metal, and a muzzle flash. But beauty in nature and flashes of insight color them by which a person can learn and hope for something better than the hand dealt.
I had to fight my way through the first half of this book to find that hope. Much of the collection is disturbing, though often in a way that finds beauty in scabs and the wounds they cover. Here were my favorite poems: "Black Hope," "God," "To Have a Body," "I Have This Silence," "In the Convent Garden," "The Hummingbird," "Only One Bird," and "Solimar," the following excerpt from it being one of the more beautiful passages.
'A kiss is the hinge on the door
of the universe which swings
silently open like a bank vault
covered with stars.
And on the other side,
the sea flashing like foil and this hot
air taken in gulps and mouthfuls,
and you and me, and the finicky sandpipers
shrieking surfeit surfeit surfeit
rushing the banquet of each wave.'
These poems are for the most part street tough, brutal, gritty, not pretty. They're about survival, and they're about letting go when survival isn't possible. These poems don't blink or flinch against the cruelty in the world that people inflict on one another and upon themselves. These poems aren't for people looking for rainbows, roses and rhymes, rather for granite, hot metal, and a muzzle flash. But beauty in nature and flashes of insight color them by which a person can learn and hope for something better than the hand dealt.
I had to fight my way through the first half of this book to find that hope. Much of the collection is disturbing, though often in a way that finds beauty in scabs and the wounds they cover. Here were my favorite poems: "Black Hope," "God," "To Have a Body," "I Have This Silence," "In the Convent Garden," "The Hummingbird," "Only One Bird," and "Solimar," the following excerpt from it being one of the more beautiful passages.
'A kiss is the hinge on the door
of the universe which swings
silently open like a bank vault
covered with stars.
And on the other side,
the sea flashing like foil and this hot
air taken in gulps and mouthfuls,
and you and me, and the finicky sandpipers
shrieking surfeit surfeit surfeit
rushing the banquet of each wave.'
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review