Post by shayepoet on Oct 7, 2008 17:06:24 GMT 2
mixed states
Ren Powell
There is an intoxicating blend of lyricism and narrative in Ren
Powell’s poems. With honesty and exhilarating invention, she writes
of diverse subjects – a Palestinian poet, the flowering shroud of a
spinster, a murdered 17-year old Mexican girl. What unifies these
poems is intense energy and fierce craftsmanship.
At the heart of this collection is ”Red-Eared Slider”. Both
accessible and elusive, sophisticated and scandalous, this poem
returns to the speaker’s childhood to contemplate the violent death of her brother.
Reading Ren Powell’s poetry is like watching the changing light
on the North Sea: the surface effects are stunning, the depths
always in motion.
--Theodore Deppe
Sample poem:
Spinster’s Shroud
She has fashioned for herself
a gown
of hollowed egg shells
and white thread.
She has taken from the clasp and string
her great-grandmother’s pearls
and arranged the four hundred sixty eight
fawn moonscapes
to hang in their stead.
An undergarment of ivy,
woven to lift the dry shells
that adorn the bodice.
The crinoline is formed of dried bundles
of bugleweed, saved from midsummer picking—
eight times in youth,
and twenty-seven times
since.
She has trimmed the hem with holly.
A train of evergreen.
She saves for the last
to tie the knot.
Breaking the thread with her teeth,
sliding the needle into the cushion,
leaving open the door
to the coop
Le suaire de la vieille fille
Elle s’est fait
une robe
de coquilles d’oeuf vides
et de fil blanc.
Elle a enlevé du fermoir et du cordon
les perles de son arrière-grand-mère
et enfilé à leur place les quatre-cent
soixante-huit paysages lunaires
fauves.
Un sous-vêtement de lierre,
tissé pour soulever les coques sèches
de ses clavicules nues,
s’entre-tisse aux orchidées sauvages
qui décorent le bustier.
La crinoline est formée de grappes de pied-de-loup séché
conservées des cueillettes de l’été --
huit fois jeune fille,
et vingt-sept fois
depuis.
Elle a garni l’ourlet de gui.
Une traîne de sapin.
En dernier
elle fait le noeud.
Coupant le fil avec ses dents,
enfonçant l’aiguille dans le coussin,
laissant ouverte la porte
du poulailler.
Translation by Alice-Catherine Carls
Les jeunes filles suédoises cueillent le pied-de-loup à la St. Jean. La tradition veut que si une vierge le met sous son oreiller cette nuit-là, elle verra son futur époux en rêve .
More poems from mixed states:
Fieralingue
Verse Daily
Review excerpt for mixed states:
Urgent, Narrative Poems
". . . Powell's lines have power and linguistic command. The large poem named after a kind of turtle, "Red-Eared Slider", is a major cycle in eighteen parts, which sums up her method and provides the reader with differing levels of energy as one reads. Some are reticent, factual, full of details, while others are enigmatic and symbolic. All are charged with an undercurrent that sometimes erupts in dazzling images.”
-- Helge Torvund in Dagbladet, January 10, 2005
About the author:
Ren Powell is the author of two full-length collections of poetry (Fairy Tales and Soil and Mixed States, both bilingual editions published by Wigestrand AS), and two chapbooks. She received an Emerging Writers Grant from the Norwegian Writers Union in 2005, and her books have been purchased by the Norwegian Arts Council. Her poetry has been translated and published in French, Norwegian, Croatian, Basque, Persian and Spanish. Ren also has ten books of translations among her publishing credits. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster University.
Website
ISBN: 82-91370-74-5, 121 pages, $14.00 (USD)
Wigestrand forlag, AS (Norway)
[glow=teal,2,300]BUY HERE, BUY NOW:[/glow]
Amazon: tinyurl.com/4ckxz3
Wigestrand: tinyurl.com/5xyp4m
(Special price through website or Amazon--
more from publisher, due to exchange rates)
or send an email to Ren at renka@online.no