Bestiary

<p>The poems in Elise Paschen's <i>Bestiary</i> explore domestic preoccupations set against the backdrop of the wild-heartedness real and imagined of the animal world praises the poet Jason Shinder. In this modern-day <i>Bestiary</i> or Book of Beasts the line between animal and human is thinly-drawn - the daughter of a Celtic king through love is transformed from beast to human; lovers take flight as moon and owl; manatees transform before the explorers' eyes into mermaids. This dynamic runs throughout the collection: taking flight hovering between air and earth plunging and then resurfacing from water. The poems create a constant engagement between what tethers us to our daily lives - marriage motherhood raising a family the loss of parents in old age - and the desire for other worlds. Exploring notions of transformation these poems cross thresholds between animal and human between death and life.</p> <br><p>Award-winning poet Elise Paschen creates in her third and most complex poetry collection work which is elegant and passionate preternaturally still and reckless all at once. Paschen displays a variety of form and nuance - from ghazals to long-lined free verse poems. Writing out of a distinct Western literary tradition but tapping into her Native American (Osage) roots Paschen celebrates the mythic the unusual the magical glimpsed in the everyday.</p>