Two Books

Today after posting about some other favorite poets, it made me think of other writers who I like. There are a few that stand out in my mind, and really, it's just two books that made me gasp the first time I read them. The type of books that make me stop, because they are so intensely beautiful, that I cannot bear it. I can only read them in small fragments. They are overwhelming. It's as though I have just learned to read again. That's the feeling these two books gave me the first time I read them. I want to go to bed with them, sleep with them under my pillow, read the words over and over. Have you ever had that feeling about a book?

The first book is Ava by Carole Maso. This book was mesmerizing. It was constructed like a piece of music. With words and phrases reverberating over and over throughout the book. Surreal and exquisite. It's the mind of a woman who is dying. It's her last day. I love this book. The imagery and words are precise and evocative. I believe it's called "narrative poetics." This crossing the boundary from poetry to prose to really, musical construct, just amazed me. I had never read anything quiet like it. Lovely.

They are singing low in my ear, now. In the morning garden.

He grew old roses.

So what's the war about? someone asks. In brief.

Impact me. Impact me harder.

She finds herself on her thirty-third birthday on a foreign coast with a man named Carlos.

Never stop.

He is worried the city will get better---but not for awhile, and not before it gets worse.

How are you Ava Klein?

What answer would you be interested in other than the truth?

Make a wish.

The blue and purple in your black hair, Carlos...

I wrote you fifty love letters.

I ran through broom and wild sage.

We took the overnight train.