IN THIS ISSUE Special Focus on Poetry
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The Cascadia Su bductio A LITERARY n Z QUARTERLY on April 2012 X Vol. 2. No. 2 e ESSAYS Special Focus on Poetry Undines, Vampires, Statues, and Space...Women’s Poetry by Liz Henry Writing, Race, and Poetry by Mark Rich IN THIS ISSUE POEMS Crow at Solstice by Mark Rich Said in Tones of Conversation by Mark Rich Bird-Winged by Michele Bannister East Coast Summer by Emily Jiang The Problem of Two Bodies by Michele Bannister BOOKS REVIEWED Grandmother Magma Promised Lands: Poems from the Sovereign of Dishpan Sonnets by JT Stewart The Moment of Change edited by Rose Lemberg X He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices T erri Windling Windling erri by Stephen Mills Suspended Somewhere Between: A Book of Verse by Akbar Ahmed A Mayse-Bikhl by Sonya Taaffe X When the Only Light is Fire by Saeed Jones “Desert Spirit — Medicine Vision” FEATURED ARTIST $4.00 Terri Windling Managing Editor ol o pRil Lew Gilchriist v . 2 N . 2—a 2012 Reviews Editor Essays Nisi Shawl Undines, Vampires, Statues, and Space...Women’s Poetry h 3 Features Editor by Liz Henry L. Timmel Duchamp Writing, Race, and Poetry h 6 by Mark Rich Arts Editor Kath Wilham POEMS Crow at Solstice, by Mark Rich h 7 $4.00 Said in Tones of Conversation, by Mark Rich h 11 Bird-Winged, by Michele Bannister h 15 East Coast Summer, by Emily Jiang h 15 The Problem of Two Bodies, by Michele Bannister h 20 REviEws Grandmother Magma Promised Lands: Poems from the Sovereign of Dishpan Sonnets by JT Stewart h 10 reviewed by Eileen Gunn The Moment of Change, edited by Rose Lemberg h 12 reviewed by Rachel Swirsky H He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices, by Stephen Mills h 16 2 reviewed by Evan J. Peterson Suspended Somewhere Between: A Book of Verse, by Akbar Ahmed h 17 reviewed by Liz Bourke A Mayse-Bikhl, by Sonya Taaffe h 19 reviewed by Amal El-Mohtar When the Only Light is Fire, by Saeed Jones h 21 reviewed Sheree Renée Thomas FEatuREd aRtist Terri Windling h 22 © The Cascadia Subduction Zone, 2012 Subscriptions and single issues online To order by check, payable to: at: www.thecsz.com Aqueduct Press Print subscription: $15/yr; P.O. Box 95787 Print single issue: $4 Seattle, WA 98145-2787 Electronic Subscription (PDF format): [Washington State Residents $10 per year add 9.5% sales tax.] Electronic single issue: $3 In This ISSUE Cover banner collagraph of the Cascadia subduction zone by Marilyn Liden Bode n y Undines, Vampires, Statues, and Space...Women’s Poetry by Liz Henry I translate poetry from Spanish to Eng- Ran’s daughters lish, with a particular focus on work by Wrapped in diamantine froth “I was struck by the many women poets from the Americas. Writing that flecks their blushing bodies speculative elements my thesis, an anthology titled “Spanish glowing with the rays of the sun, in work from the turn American Women Poets, 1880-1930,” I the undines rise, gathered in a group. of the 19th century. I was struck by the many speculative ele- Covering their far-ranging shoulders wondered… what might ments in work from the turn of the 19th their unfastened hair tumbles down, come to light reading century. I wondered in my preface, discuss- and to the clamor of the waves they mix this work as feminist ing sexism in the definitions of the literary the echoes of their silvery laughter. speculative writing.” movements of romanticism and modern- Thus they live content and fortunate ismo, what might come to light reading between sky and sea, rejoicing, this work as feminist speculative writing. perhaps ignoring that they’re beautiful. These poems paint sweeping portraits And how the waves, contesting with each other, of imaginary landscapes, idealized scenes crash and twine, crowned with shining foam, with fantastic elements from mythology stretching out, defining their virgin forms. or ancient Greek history, statues coming to life in the moonlight, and conversations The ondines (Las ondines) with the ghost of Sappho. At the shore One striking image recurs in “Las hijas where the cool and silvered wave de Ran” by Juana Borrero, a Cuban poet, bathes sand, and “Las ondines” by María Eugenia Vaz and the shining stars Ferreira, from Uruguay — Undines or on- flare and die dines, nymphs or water elementals who at dawn’s first rays, live in waves or sea foam. Borrero’s Norse i daughters of the sea goddess and Vaz Fer- from sea-foam reira’s ondines laugh and sing playfully the ondines lightly leap, 3 to each other in the waves, jostling each swift curves other in constant motion, perhaps echo- and forms, ing these women’s active participation ethereal dress of ocean nymphs, in literary circles of other women poets. fair visions. They are extraordinary poems in featur- They roll onward, clear green, ing female characters who exist in relation resplendent as emeralds, to each other. They pass a sort of poetic the bright waters “Norse daughters of the Bechdel test. that lend color sea goddess and Vaz to their polished shoulders, Ferreira’s ondines laugh Las hijas de Ran snow-white swan… and sing playfully to each other in the waves, Some wrap themselves Envueltas entre espumas diamantinas jostling each other in in diaphanous blue mists que salpican sus cuerpos sonrosados, constant motion, perhaps dressed in dawn, por los rayos del sol iluminados, echoing these women’s others in the wind surgen del mar en grupo las ondinas. active participation in let fly light floating gauze Cubriendo sus espaldas peregrinas literary circles of other the color of heaven descienden los cabellos destrenzados, women poets.” y al rumor de las olas van mezclados and the fair ones sink los ecos de sus risas argentinas. svelte forms of sonorous ocean Así viven contentas y dichosas beneath the waters, entre el cielo y el mar, regocijadas, and over the waves ignorando tal vez que son hermosas, their hair snakes Y que las olas, entre sí rivales, like rays of gold… se entrechocan, de espumas coronadas, por estrechar sus formas virginales. Cont. on p. 4 n Undines, Vampires, Women poets in Spanish America were an alternate lineage, race, or species as an Statues, and Space not working in isolation but wrote and “alien.” And in “El vampiro” I also used the (cont. from p. 3) published in a literary landscape domi- word alien in the line “¿Soy flor o estirpe nated by men. Miriam Díaz-Diocaretz de una especie obscura…,” which taken lit- writes of their “strategic discursive con- erally would be “Am I a flower, or the stock sciousness” — ways in which Latin Ameri- of an obscure species….” Translating that can women poets position themselves as “a mysterious alien being” is a stretch, and their work as part of a larger literary but one that I think illuminates Agustini’s “…they…stake a conversation. By writing with elements of radical positioning of herself as a being claim in a world of mythology and the fantastic from the Old outside of rational human understanding. the fantastic, in an World, Borrero and Vaz Ferreira situate imaginary Utopian themselves on a world stage and in geography where they a history that stretches outside their are free and exist in a particular time and place. They are Alien Other declaring a particular cosmopolitan, chaotic and mutable Eros, blind priest, I long to guide you… educated, elite status, but they also state.” From your all-powerful hands I would pray for stake a claim in a world of the fantas- his sublime body spilling fiery tic, in an imaginary Utopian geogra- over my swooning body on a bed of roses. phy where they are free and exist in a chaotic and mutable state. The electric petals that I hold open, ready, Mercedes Matamoros wrote an offer him full all the nectar-cup of a garden of women; entire book of sonnets speaking as as for his vultures, I’ll tempt them with my flesh– Sappho; María Luisa Milanés wrote a whole swirling flock of rosy doves! of herself as Spartacus. Vaz Ferreira Surrender to the two cruel serpents of his arms wrote of maenads as well as ondines. my tall frail flower-stem…absinthe, honey, They wrote themselves into an alter- spill from his veins, from his mouth… nate poetics, into alternate mytholo- H gies rather than alternate histories. Stretched out like this, I’m an ardent furrow Statues never come to life in where seed could be nourished– 4 these poems, but seem to stand for seed of an alien species supremely mad! an immutable patriarchal reading of history and myth, undermined The Vampire or criticized from a feminine point Embraced by evening’s sorrow, of view. Statues are male: beautiful, I invoked your grief… To feel it was cold, pompous, ridiculous, and wrong to feel your heart! You grew pale, because they’re unmoving. María even your voice, your waxen eyelids, Luisa Milanés ridicules vain Narcus- lowered… and you were silent… You seemed “They wrote themselves sus as empty-headed; Juana Borrero into an alternate addresses a marble statue of Apollo, to hear Death’s footsteps… I, who opened poetics, into alternate describing this god of poem and song your wound, sank my teeth into it - you felt me?– mythologies rather than as sterile, haughty, and cold, while she I bit into you - my golden honeycomb! alternate histories.” celebrates her own creative energy. And sweetly, traitorous, I sucked harder Delmira Agustini writes in “Fiera de from your wounded mortal heart, Amor” of fierce blood lust that drives pierced by my rare dagger, cruel and delicious her to rip out the heart of a statue and with nameless evil, as you bled, sobbing! eat it.