Customer Reviews

The Shipwreck Dress

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When I worked in publishing, I had the blessing and good fortune to publish Terri Witek's previous book, CARNAL WORLD. Ever since, I've eagerly awaited her new collection of poems, and here it is!

The poems in THE SHIPWRECK DRESS are mysterious and irresistible, like a beautiful, ghostly figure beckoning, teasing desire while remaining somehow just out of reach. In a jacket comment, the wonderful poet, Rachel Hadas, explains that to follow Witek's detail will bring you to "a microcosmic narrative" and the opportunity to lose "yourself in one of the innumerable imaginative sub-worlds of this unique poet." Yes, that's it, exactly. I could not say it better than that.

I can add that I especially enjoy reading and re-reading the title poem, the sequence of kimono poems that is broken up and interspersed throughout the collection, "Moon Bottle," "Almost Anybody's Love Life," and "Night Book."

As I discovered with her last book, Witek is a poet who really does go down deep into the emotional muck that rarely sees the light of day. She provokes memory, that most relentless of self-inquisitors, and in doing so she becomes, quite simply, indispensable. Buy this book and share it with those you know, and with those you would like to know better.

--Robert McDowell, The Poetry Mentor, author of the forthcoming, POETRY AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE (Free Press, July 2008), [...]