The Doors of the Body
One of my poetry professors often urged us to enjoy a leisurely après-midi de poésie, to step away from our own manuscripts and read, read, read what our contemporaries were publishing. As a student, I found it easy to take this advice, to curl up in the library for hours with a stack of journals, to scribble down thoughts and impressions, to breathe it all in. Inspired, provoked, or bored, I found it all so instructive and rejuvenating.
Of course, now, with so many demands and a gravity-defying toddler in the mix, I find it harder and harder to carve out those quiet afternoons of poetry. Working on Astropoetica is still rewarding and exciting, but it is structured, subject-specific reading, and the process of accepting and rejecting can hardly be described as leisurely. Now more than I ever I find those stolen hours for pure pleasure reading more and more precious.
Most recently I have been delighting in Mary Alexander Agner’s new collection, The Doors of the Body (Mayapple Press, ISBN 978-0932412-799). I admit upfront I am more fangirl than reviewer, so forgive me if I gush. Agner is deft of craft and fierce in voice. In The Doors of the Body, she gives fangs and heat and agency to the women of myth and fairy tale. A few of the included poems can be sampled on online, such as “Wear the Lighting” in Goblin Fruit, and “Sleeping Beauty” in Strange Horizons. Such delicious work! Check it out!
I have had the great joy of publishing Agner’s work in previous issues of Astropoetica, and two of her poems will be appearing in our next. I hope she can be persuaded someday to release a chapbook of her science-based poetry, because it too is absolutely divine.
