It is possible, perhaps even probable that when a man is asked what his wife is doing with her time, and the man answers that she has been writing poetry, the inquirer will think to himself, oh, isn't that quaint. In my case, there is nothing "quaint" about my wife Maria's poetry. It is beautiful, surreal, and inordinately thought-provoking, Were I to liken her work to a painter, Marc Chagall would be the perfect exemplar. As Maria has been an inspiration to me in all things, she is my inspiration in poetry as well. Maria is, and I say this objectively, my favorite poet. Here are three poems from her new book, Sundry Abductions.
Revelation It starts with a marionette, a veil, a man in a suit There is often a woman, a fish, and you can hardly tell one from the other Angry clouds on a scrim, the actors mime fear in a storm and the audience will be drenched in the downpour For the finale, a hand in the wings pulls on the curtain and the whole blistered world is revealed and ashamed of its nakedness Afterwards the players return home to their offstage lives Tithe Luck is unexpected like breaking an egg and finding two yolks Fortune is brassy and proud and tends to beget Celebrity and bewildered offspring Fame requires the famous to give their life to the audience or at least ten percent of any near drownings or sundry abductions Though They Suffered a Great Thirst They broke stones with a hammer during the longest long winter, and under the trees they unloaded piles of piles When flakes landed on their striped prison cuffs they lifted their heads to catch snow with their mouths There was a day and the deep pull of sleep when she fell. A sprawl of tatter and limb, when she fell and as the others gathered to watch a small peak form on her body not one among them moved to claim the crest of snow on the fallen girl's chest as it rose. Sank and rose
Maria! Maria! Maria!
Reading these 3 poems flooded me with an urge to revisit Sundry Abductions— to recapture the myriad diverse emotions it evokes. An unforgettable, wondrous experience!!