In 2008 these three a-musing poets appeared together in the women's poetry anthology, Not A Muse. But in this new anthology, they take turns being Thalia, muse of comedy, Clio, muse of history and Polyhymnia, muse of sacred poetry.
They know each other and appear to have inspired each other-all three write about spirituality and silent reflection. For Kate Marshall Flaherty "the quietest time" is "empty yet full." In the early morning, she stares "at everything / in the absence of light." Deborah Panko's poems hover over the world while celebrating epiphany and longing, like her "Hummingbird," the "Native Indian symbol for healing." In a sestina moving as a prayer, Donna Langevin gives "alibis to angels."
Real life is depicted with wit and insight. Deborah manages to blend reflection with compassion and irony in "Faith Bought in a Crystal Shop in Toronto, Canada, at the End of the 20th Century," and "With vision clear and strong as a clap of thunder," she portrays a visceral and elemental spirituality-"a faith that could make sense of it all." In "National Geographic Photograph," Kate describes the raw horror of the image of a starving woman, her "skeleton draped / in a dark sari of skin." Donna's "Hot Chocolate Rag" celebrates a tune "composed / in a New York coffee shop / in the middle of a snowstorm / 100 years ago" and how it "steams from the keyboard" of her "ragster son."
You will enter this anthology with an "Oooo" of wonder and hang, like Kate Marshall Flaherty, "suspended like a halo" over the spiritual pieces. Deborah Panko's "History Lesson" will fill you with visceral regret as you read about how the narrator has shut desire in a book. And the final section will snow down on you with grace as Donna Langevin reflects on the multiple shapes of love and snow.
- Kate Rogers, Co-editor, Not A Muse: the inner lives of women; Haven Books.
