Compelling, appealing, cinematic . . . Rekdal refreshes the meaning and
the image of being displaced in this world. --The Boston Globe
Rekdal's work deeply satisfies, for it witnesses and wonders over the
necessary struggles of human awareness and being. --Rain Taxi
In acknowledging the disappointing facts of our existence and singing
her way into its amazement, she has created poetry that lives alongside
the misery we sometimes witness--and sometimes cause. --Slate
Paisley Rekdal questions how identity and being inhabit metaphorical and
personified vessels, from blown glass and soap bubbles to skulls
unearthed at the Colorado State Mental Institution. Whether writing
short lyrics or a sonnet sequence celebrating Mae West, Rekdal's
intellectually inquisitive and carefully researched poems delight in
sound, meter, and head-on engagement. Illustrated with twelve Andrea
Modica photographs.
From You're:
Vague as fog and turnip--hipped, a creel of eels
that slithers in stains. Dirty slate, you're
Diamond Lil. She's you, you say. You're her. She's I. O
Mae, fifth grade, we dressed in feathers and our mothers' slit
pink slips, dipped into your schema and your accent,
aspiring (like you) to be able to order coffee and have it
sound like filth . . .
Paisley Rekdal is the author of four books of poetry, a book of
personal essays, and a mixed media book of photography, poetry, fiction
and non-fiction. She lives in Salt Lake City and teaches at the
University of Utah.
