num_pages: 79
description: These are poems distinguished by their faith. Faith that knows pain need not beget more pain, but rather compassion—which is relation. There is a stabbed, wounded sensation at the heart of many of the poems. Or the pain occurs off-stage, in a sense, as it so often catches us in our lives, unaware. From the little social hurt of being ignored by an attractive man ("Beauty") to the murder of a girl in the long, stately "New Words for the Funeral Mass of Pamela Mason", people keep getting stabbed—or stab back, even at themselves, as the alcoholic younger sister in "Oceanography" does.This commitment to relation (rather than to judgment or distanced or ironic observation) is the fundamental quality of poetic endeavor. It is faith, as revealed in art. And Marisha Chamberlain has given herself over to this faith, as Willa Cather says she wishes to do in the memorable, clear-voiced persona poem "Willa Cather's Final Trip to Nebraska." Cather's wistful desire:to be a face, human, about to speak,yet unconscious of itself:a face dissolving into its surroundingsis Marisha Chamberlain's achievement in this book.
language: English
title: Powers
titlecomplete: Powers
ratings_count: 3
publisher: New Rivers Press