Description
Deep Light is not a poetry collection, if collection implies merely a gathering of similar objects. Nor is it a chronological compilation of work from the author’s previous books. The poems in Deep Light have been selected and arranged to create a continuous, unified text. Like McClanahan’s description of gray doves “tipping across the gravel / their shadows pumping before them,” the poems move forward in an alternating dance of light and shade. In the brightest places of our world, suggests this poet, grief and loss cast their shadows. But even in the darkest places, light makes its way.
Praise for the poetry of Rebecca McClanahan
on Mrs. Houdini
This work transforms the mythic into the personal, the personal into the mythic.
–Poetry Society of America
No one has written poems of the feminine experience that are less strident or more profoundly political.
–Rodney Jones
on The Intersection of X and Y
These open-eyed poems, scanting no loss or error we have made, are full of the stunned pleasure of being alert, and offer that gift to their lucky readers.
–William Matthews
…a quiet, powerful book–like good southern bourbon–about lovers and families and all those unexpected turns our lives take. Ms. McClanahan, deft and sly, narrates tales where they kiss and tell and love remains at the center of everything.
–Dave Smith
on Naked as Eve
These resourceful poems beckon to us with their music, subtle wit and insight into human foibles and desire. They insinuate themselves in memory and won’t let go.
–Colette Inez
on Mother Tongue
The energy of this poet, the determination, snaps and crackles like a lion tamer’s whip. Expect to be surprised, moved and changed.
–The Arts Journal
Out of the small and ordinary these poems make things new and mysterious, immeasurable and simply wonderful.
–George Garrett
