Heavenly Bodies (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry)
“This is a poetry of woundedness and defiance.Heavenly Bodieshas a stark integrity in its refusals to beguile or comfort; no one could call it uplifting. Yet there is something bracing, even encouraging, in the hungry survival of this sister of Sylvia Plath and in her self-insistence:I do not give up my strangeness for anyone.” —Mark Halliday“Cynthia Huntington’sHeavenly Bodiesis the most searing and frightening book of poetry I have read in years. The poems arise from pain and illness, from the body’s rebellions and betrayals, and yet they are also curiously exhilarating, even redemptive: perhaps because they are utterly free of self-pity, and find the means—hrough the sustained ferocity and invention of their language—to transform suffering into a vision so bold it must be called prophetic.Heavenly Bodiesis a remarkable collection, on every level.” —David Wojahn, author ofWorld Tree