Post by shayepoet on Sept 19, 2008 1:10:40 GMT 2
Another Rude Awakening
Dori Appel
In the quirky poems of Dori Appel's Another Rude Awakening, the everyday world is reflected back to us, slightly off-kilter, in a way that awakens the reader to a new, startling, and engrossing vision:
"Dori Appel writes poems as if she were a shipwreck's last survivor, commemorating and rejuvenating the past, illuminating overlooked details, and inspiring us to take heart, bear fearless witness, and truthfully, all-inclusively share the experiences that shape and define our diverse, spirited journeys. Every subject is so surehandedly yet tenderly addressed, every rhyme, cadence, and word are so-perfect! There's no other word for it. Dori Appel understands as few do that we all inhabit the spaces between, when we are nameless and infinite. Her poems in Another Rude Awakening help me to see the people and things of this world as Fellow Travelers who are all actively holding up an edge of the tent."
--Robert McDowell, Poetry as Spiritual Practice
Sample poem:
Snow White Remembers How It Was
I tell you it was a great relief-
the end of our sinister
hide and seek. I'd had enough
of combs with savage teeth and
crimson apples hiding death
beneath their skins.
Finished! I thought as I fell,
and Finished! again at the funeral,
where safe within my crystal cell
I heard the Queen's exultant shriek
echo through the air.
(How foolish
everything seemed, even
the cries of my manikins,
spoiling the coffin's gleaming lid
with salty tears.)
At last, the noisy rituals were done.
The Queen's mirror confirmed
her triumph, the little men
retreated to their hearth,
and silence fell on me
like snow, nestling
white and heavy on my chest.
Beneath its weight
I lay still in my glass box,
every thought suppressed
while the earth creaked on,
issuing demands.
For one long moment I was
the only person in a world where
nothing was required of me,
not even breath.
Oh, it was too brief!
That perfect solitude I knew
before being jolted back
by his loud kiss.
More poems from this book:
Feral Children.com: "House Arrest"
Public Poetry: "Alter Ego"
*****
When You Got Top Billing
The Future
My Grandmother's Education
Open Books Open Minds with Dashka Slater
The Future
My Grandmother's Education
Open Books Open Minds with Dashka Slater
*****
About the author:
Dori Appel's poetry has been featured in many journals, magazines, and anthologies, including six collections published by Papier Mache Press. Among these are When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple and The Best Is Yet To Be, the audio recording of which was a 1997 Grammy finalist. A playwright as well as a poet, her work has been widely produced throughout the United States, as well as internationally. Her monologues are featured in several anthologies, and three full length plays are published by Samuel French. Working between the two genres, her poems sometimes become monologues or scenes in dramatic works. The recipient of several regional and national playwriting awards, she was the winner of the prestigious Oregon Book Award in Drama in 1998 for Freud's Girls, in 1999 for The Lunatic Within, and in 2001 for Lost and Found. She is currently a finalist for the 2008 OBA in Drama for her play Hat Tricks. To learn more about her poetry and plays, visit her website.
Website: www.doriappel.com
Dori Appel: Playwright tinyurl.com/3g4e93
Nye Beach Writers' Series: tinyurl.com/4tdoxb
ISBN 9781934999233, 128 pages, $19.00
Cherry Grove Collections: 2008
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