Post by shayepoet on May 29, 2008 18:26:46 GMT 2
The Highwayman's Wife
Lynnell Edwards[/b]
"What a wicked pleasure the poems of Lynnell Edwards are, with their saucy
boldness, their wild feminine bravada, their sly rhymes and clattering
consonants. In The Highwayman's Wife, Edwards reinterprets old myths and
legends, twists the old formal strategies, undomesticates domesticity, mixes
drinks, plants dahlias with a pick-axe, and laments and resurrects --
"laughing, bitter, bright" -- the wench."
— Cecilia Woloch
Sample poem:
Sonnet for the Highwayman
I will rob you, lover. Cut your purse,
pilfer the gold coins stitched inside your shirt
when I reach for a kiss, ungirdle your bright sword
for my own device, whirl away into the Highland night.
And you thinking this the safe house, the happy way
station on the lonely road, the warm light
glowing in the stone tower just for you, oh no.
Fierce is my clan, shifting, wild. The youngest daughters
taught to lie, steal, before they can read. No domestic
lore, we are schooled in deception, forgery,
as quick to sign our own name as another.
So abandon your treasure now, your precious bounty,
loose your horse to forage his own animal soul,
then on your knees, love. I have already stolen your cloak.
Review for The Highwayman's Wife:
"With her second collection of poetry, The Highwayman’s Wife, Lynnell Edwards continues to present work readers often find emphatic, even uniquely forceful, frequently requiring an alert and attentive listener who appreciates lyrical poetry posing a point of view that at times educates and almost always entertains. . ."
-- Edward Byrne, Valparaiso Poetry Review
tinyurl.com/4cfjoa
About the author:
Lynnell Edwards is the author of two collections of poetry: The
Highwayman's Wife (2007) and The Farmer's Daughter (2003), both from Red Hen
Press. She regularly also writes book reviews for American Book Review,
Pleiades, Georgia Review and Review/Revue. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky
and teaches at the University of Louisville.
Website: www.lynnelledwards.com
ISBN: 13-978-1-59709-075-9, 99 pages, $17.95
Red Hen Press
[glow=teal,2,300]BUY HERE: BUY NOW:[/glow]
Amazon: tinyurl.com/4c5zol
Red Hen Press: tinyurl.com/4dr94r[/font]