A Secret Room in Fall [Paperback]

Maria Terrone (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0912592605 | ISBN-13: 978-0912592602 | Publication Date: December 1, 2006

Poetry. "Whether confronting heavy matters close to home and family, taking in gritty facets of the urban landscape, or bringing to sympathetic light anonymous, mainly female workers in the shadows and giving each her moment of perfectly articulated presence, Maria Terrone's poems are quietly insistent, recuperative acts of imagination. At times spiced by a wry humor, at times opening to small touches of rapture ("I rise daily, a miracle"), this Secret Room in Fall suggests a world that is one "dense, resplendent cargo," of which the poet takes exacting, loving stock"-- Eamon Grennan.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Eamon Grennan:
"Maria Terrone's poems are quietly insistent, recuperative acts of imagination."

David Mason:
"Even over-familiar subjects like 9-11 are transformed in Maria Terrone's imagination to fresh, intriguing journeys. Like 'a brilliant kaleidoscope, the sea we hold within / will allow us to sail through our own lives, / unharmed.' In such declarations Terrone speaks for us all."

Rhina Espaillat:

"A Secret Room in Fall is a compelling, imaginative collection not to be missed. The poems move easily among their many contexts--history, literature, autobiography, travel, and subtly loving, persuasive portraits. The manuscript opens with an Egyptian queen asserting the tricky ubiquitousness of the dead, and goes on to surprise and delight with other unexpected speakers."

About the Author

A Secret Room in Fall, co-winner of the McGovern Prize, is Maria Terrone's second collection of poetry. Her work, which has received first-place awards and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, has appeared in Poetry, Crab Orchard Review, Hudson Review and many other national magazines and anthologies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 78 pages
• Publisher: Ashland Poetry Press (December 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912592605
• ISBN-13: 978-0912592602
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,593,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Does Endurance Look Like?, December 1, 2007

By 

Robert McDowell "Robert McDowell" (Ashland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Secret Room in Fall (Paperback)

A Secret Room in Fall by Maria Terrone is wonderfully rich with In This Moment poetry. In Omega Train, passengers stampede through subway cars attempting to escape a gunman. When they reach the front car there is, of course, nowhere else to go. What is about to happen? Where is the experience taking the narrator? Just here:

"What I remember/are the plastic turquoise seats,/how hard, ugly,/and oddly bright they were,/built for human cargo,/and how they would outlast us all."

This gritty epiphany sounds and feels so true! In moments of high drama, what do we remember or focus on? Often it's the small, the insignificant, and unsightly details that simultaneously make up and mar our environment. Then perhaps we notice one thing more. In Terrone's case, she realizes that those seats will outlast us all.

What are we to make of that? Endurance has nothing to do with aesthetic beauty? What, then, does endurance have to do with? These are the kinds of questions that good poetry brings up in us over and over again.

"For Blanche, Who Named the Colors" is a poem that gives us part of that answer. If places endure, so do people.

Praise Blanche, who lived alone
in a ground-floor flat
but dwelled in kingdoms

of Venetian Marble and Antique Pearl.
Pondering colors
for the paint company,
she discovered each one's soul

and gave them their names
when we might say
rose is just rose or
these shades are all the same.

Praise Blanche, who retreated
behind Cubicle Gray for days
to meditate on lilac till we feared
a plunge into monochrome

when she emerged,
face flushed, her voice was a bell
extolling Silver Chalice!
First Light! Ice Ballet!

each shade a stand
against sorrow and pain,
the void of no-names,
even when the tongue quavered

and came to rest, remembering
someone in palest Lauren's Lace.

This is a lovely poem! Perhaps I think so because an early job of mine was as an apprentice housepainter. Often I pondered paint chips with befuddled and bedazzled customers, and like them I sometimes wondered, `who comes up with these names'? Thanks to Maria Terrone, now I know! Blanche joins my pantheon of characters who have come alive for me in poems and so enlivened me.

A Secret Room in Fall is rich with such experiences. If you would like to gain considerable insight into the nature of endurance, if you'd like to perceive 9/11 and its aftermath in a different way, get this book. Experience it, enjoy it, and send copies to your loved ones!

-----Robert McDowell, The Poetry Mentor, author of the forthcoming Poetry as Spiritual Practice (July 15, 2008 from Free Press/Simon & Schuster), [...]

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Second Act, December 28, 2006

By 

Nancy Glider (New York, N.Y.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Secret Room in Fall (Paperback)

I was so moved by Maria Terrone's first volume of poetry that I was surprised to find myself even more affected by her second. This is a must read for anyone interested in modern poetry. Her imagery is so vivid and so eloquent that her work is a joy to savor.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Resonance of the Familiar, December 17, 2006

By 

Rena (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Secret Room in Fall (Paperback)

Maria Terrone hears whispers of mythical import in kitchens, subway cars and Boombox Lotharios. She deciphers their signs amid urban landscapes. Maria is an alchemist of Urban Magic.
This second book of her poems, A Secret Room In Fall, is a distilation of sights seen and imagined. You will be transported to unfamiliar regions in your everyday world.
Rena