Teresa Whites In What Furnace is a collection of 288 poems, all written by a northwestern poet whose biography includes the diagnosis of manic/depression, the experience of unwed mother, and the address of mental institutions. The collection represents a cross section of her body of work for the thirty-odd years that she has practiced this art, and her talent obviously grows as she matures. The author has a keen eye for simple details, the hand-crocheted afghans, rubbing alcohol, and metallic clipboards' of nursing homes, the downward glance of embarrassed shame that a father feels when he interrupts his adolescent daughters bath, the burning house whipped by flames from birthday candles grown uncontrolled while the family waits for the celebrant to make a wish. She evokes mystery and sensuality in a series of 'travelogues,' sweeping through Greece, Fiji, and India. Her 'Two Photographs' replays the unreality of Platos cave-dwellers, their reality a shadow cast upon the wall, hers a poetic photo of a grandmother staring at a photo. Her poem 'The Iris' is beautifully sensual and evocative, reminding all of us that natures procreation is wondrous:
'Blue lips invite the dip and/ taste of bees/ who would go berserk/ if they could not enter her.'
The author knots a tapestry of public and private history, myth, memory, and desire. The truth she finds is timeless. -- C.D. Sinclair
Product Description
The first in a series of discovery editions of significant contemporary American poets by Two Steps Publishing Company, San Francisco, CA. 300 poems by Teresa White -- including all the poems she wrote as a child, through her teens and through young adulthood.
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