Free verse poems that merge surrealism with absurdism in their discussion of the complexities of the heart and the meanings in the creases of our souls, opening verbal doorways into what is absolute. Mockingbird’s Proverbs is divided into three sections. The first section, “Mockingbird’s Proverbs,” contains “proverbs” poems, modeled on William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. They are short poems that contain statements of prediction, and plumb and interrogate forms and statements of inherited wisdom. The second section, “A Portion of Shadow,” holds poems that contain always the awareness of death and darkness. Some are lively, energetic, imagistic poems that this awareness adds a layer of shadow to. The third, “Struggling, in Spite of Everything, to Survive,” contains poems about surviving in this world in the face of death. “The moon is in labor” refers to the erosion of abortion rights. “Something is dancing in the corner of my eye” is a poem addressed to my daughter, about surviving. The last line in the book, “it (the poem) could save us if it wanted to” leaves open-ended the question of whether or not poetry really can save us. I hope that it can.
