Tanya
Poems
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
The award-winning poet weaves a tapestry of literary heritage and intimate reflection as she pays tribute to women artists and mentors, and circles the ongoing mysteries of friendship, love, art, and loss.
In this powerful gathering of poems about her own "influencers," as well as poems on Dadaist artist Méret Oppenheim and the young choreographer Lauren Lovette, Brenda Shaughnessy dwells in memories of the women who set her on her artistic path.
In the title poem, she explores the eternal quality of an intense touchstone relationship with Tanya, about whom she writes, "Everyone's not you to me . . . Worth loving once, why not now?" We all have our own Tanya, and in this book we meet friends, mentors, sisters, lovers, who inhabit a verse classroom where Shaughnessy's passion for literature—forged in her own formative studies, as in the poem "Coursework"—is our teacher.
In flowing stair-step tercets, Shaughnessy leads us down into her generative core, exposing moments of spiritual and intellectual awakening, her love of art and the written word, and her sense of the life force itself, which is ignited by the conversation—across time and space—with other women.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shaughnessy's poignant latest (after The Octopus Museum) honors the women artists who have inspired her own creative journey while delving deeply into memories of formative relationships. The first section functions as an artistic genealogy, with many of the poem titles referring directly to women artists, including Torkwase Dyson and Ursula von Rydingsvard. In "The Impossible Lesbian Love Object(s)," the speaker's voice mingles and merges with the voice of surrealist artist Meret Oppenheim, referencing Oppenheim's experiments with estranging objects such as teacups from their customary purpose: "When no one can use me, I am most free." The legacy of these women artists takes on a near-sacred tone: "My fire handed down to me by cauldron witches/ in their longish unauthorized youth—." The long title poem explores a relationship that has continued to have a profound effect on Shaughnessy over the years, its emotional weight collapsing time to the longing present: "Who needs a future if you'll go away/ into it, leaving me here/ with only the you of now,/ so soon past." This generous and moving volume is a dazzling celebration of the mentors who spark creative life.
