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Category Archives: Metaphor
Lexical Intoxications
I’ve read Mary Daly’s side (reaction to Audre Lorde’s open letter) as captured in the introduction to the 1990 edition of Gyn/Ecology. The ground is covered by Gina Messina in a blog posting at Feminism and Religion. In addressing the … Continue reading →
Anatomy Lesson
Jaya Sevige. Surfaces of Air. “Sand Island” What cleaves each muscle of wave from its bone of ocean? Hear the snap of its ligaments. Listen to the severing of tendons. Sevige’s poem is a way of making sense of Lauren … Continue reading →
Not Far From The Tree
Trees are sometimes consigned to fire: Tree Destiny. Here Gracian provides a choice between two options (and of course is speaking metaphorically as well). There are trees and there are trees. Some bear fruit, while others are barren. Know well … Continue reading →
Slivers of Silvering
He gives us this general statement and immediately situates it (“I am making a big connection here between writing, coming out, and community.”) Any art wants to take the place of your reflection in the mirror and call for your … Continue reading →
After Glow Rash
Joseph Chadwick “Toward Gay Reading: Robert Glück’s ‘Reader’” in Easthope and Thompson Contemporary Poetry Meets Modern Theory (1991) pp. 40-52. Reading, this sentence, suggests, doesn’t stop when one puts down the book; rather, it continues as long as one remains … Continue reading →
Sharpening the Knives
From a review that appeared in Books in Canada Volume 28, Number 6. The book in question: The Medium and the Light: Reflection on Religion, Marshall McLuhan. Surely, McLuhan’s editors would grant that rhetoric, especially when allied with dialectic, does … Continue reading →
Not a Nautical Term
I thought the “veronica” in Eamon Grennan’s “oystercatchers in flight” (There Now) was a word capturing the manoeuvres of the birds. […] a band of oystercatchers faces all one way into a nor’wester so shafts of windlight ignite each orange … Continue reading →
Clusters of a Single Species
I have begun reading the work of American poet Philip Levine. This little bit from “Winter Words” collected in A Walk with Tom Jefferson is delightful in its exactitude and its animation: Birthday tulips, twelve hothouse flowers of royal purple … Continue reading →
Bang! Bang?
I like to follow the poet’s lead in stretching a conceit to its limit. I especially like Mark Waldron with characteristic verve nibbling away at a sugary confection. These are the concluding lines of “Guns in Films” in Meanwhile, Trees. … Continue reading →
Sage Advice on Snags
Dani Ortman provides care advice for her hand-woven fabrics. There is a metaphorical pull … Snag Instructions Every thread has its place within the cloth. When a snag happens, gently tug it back into place by running fingers along the … Continue reading →