Madeleine DeFrees’s eighth poetry collection—an author who
has never crossed my radar—is a happy accident.
According to the author’s biography, she has won numerous awards, including
the Academy of American Poets Lenore Marshall Prize and the Washington State
Book Award. She has also published short
stories, essays, journalism feature stories, and two poetry chap books and two
memoirs. She has also taught at Pacific
University Low-residency M.F.A. Program.
I will soon be digging into more of her work.
This collection of poetry contains works that use words and
phrases to weave interesting and thought-provoking poems of elegant
beauty. Here is one example: “Mythology
of Spider Silk.” “Skein upon skein of
thread in rainbow colors-- / silk of silver and gold as well-- / heaped beside
the peasant girl whose claim to rival / Athena’s skill as a weaver will soon /
be tested. Beside each loom, the raw
stuff / that will prove who is the better / at her craft. // The signal given,
shuttles fly. Athena’s / fabric, as
expected, dazzles the eye. / Arachne’s, finished at the same moment, no less /
impressive. The goddess, in a jealous /
fury, slits Arachne’s web / from top to bottom, then beats the maiden / about
the head with a shuttle. // Disgraced and angry, / Arachne hangs herself. At that, a slight regret / steals into
Athena’s heart. She / lifts the body
from the noose, sprinkles the corpse / with magic liquid. As if from sleep, / Arachne stirs, comes back
to life as a spider, her / skill at spinning, preserved” (22). Greek mythology is one of my favorite topics
for literature of any genre.
Another of these cleverly woven
poems is “Astronomy.” “This bird-woman
flew to my kitchen wall, high / above the sink—a bibelot made of / coconut
shell from Mexico—woman I call / my Aztec Sun.
Sun-yellow / frames her painted cheeks, and six / symmetrical rays
surround them, each: red / yellow, and green. // Eyebrows fallen parentheses, /
lips a small star, it’s clear that she’s / missing her starfish brother. Fossils show: 300 / million years before dinosaurs,
Blood Star / plunged to the ocean floor. / Aztec remembers. Replays the scene / evenings when sun sets
red in the west” (60).
Numerous poems in this collection deal with
nature—reminiscent of Mary Oliver--a poetry topic I love to spend hours pouring
over. Here is an example of one of her
bird poems, “To a Crow Outside My Bay Window.”
“When have I ever welcomed you to my gutters, / stuck on the one wrong
note / Poe’s ‘Raven’ returned forevermore?
Litany and / response, my every invocation / draws down the repeated
guttural cry / your mate doubles from a telephone wire / high overhead. // When
I stomp my foot, clap / my hands, rattle venetian blinds, you flap away, / but
there’s no mistake: you’re / on a round-trip with no plans to brake anywhere /
but over my eaves, morning and noon / all summer. Am I expected to ask you in, / terrific
newcomer mimic? // You do have a language / mostly scold, a memory better than
mine / for bold aggression. Smartest of
birds, your / fossils revealed in deposits 12 million years / old in Colorado,
what chance do I have / with an omen? Go
back to your nest! My / nuisance,
nemesis, shadow at my window” (68).
Is there anything sweeter than stumbling on an unknown poet
and discovering a whole new world of enchantment? Spectral
Waves by Madeline DeFrees is an instance of such a happy accident. 5 Stars
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