Myriad actors speak, often in direct addresses to the audience, about the mysterious world around them. Many are women's voices, and the book can be seen as a study of what it means to be a woman at the beginning of the new millennium. Many are characters from the Bible, fairy tales, and Graeco-Roman mythology. Noah's teenage daughter speaks about confinement on the ark. The verse humanizes Lot's wife, and brings her into a contemporary dialogue.
Myth blurs into everyday reality.
Hera and Rapunzel are other characters to encounter here, as well as an unknown young woman, a mortician's daughter. Mirriam-Goldberg surprises us with her inventive situations, and also her language. I thank her for these poems. She received her BA at the University of Missouri, and her MA and Ph.D. at the University of Kansas. She teaches at Goddard College, and she conducts writing workshops for people of many backgrounds and ages around the country.