Marys of the Sea

She is not dead but sleeping Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke; like the sick girl of that verse the speakers of Joanna Valentes sharp and urgent ​Marys of the Sea​​ toss and turn through a series of feverish nightmares that refract lived experiences into prophetic and wild new imaginings. Preoccupied with the consequences of mothering and not-mothering these fifty-three poems trenchantly interrogate sexual violence and its aftermath lingering at the site of trauma as though hanging onto the lip of an abyss. Writing becomes power structure an act of bravery. Like an ancient civilizations first creation myths these poems utter light out of darkness as they order a world into being. -Monica Ferrell author of The Answer Is Always Yes and Beasts for the Chase Visceral in its fearlessness and candor Valentes ​Marys of the Sea​​ is a bravely nuanced exploration of the subversive and sensual tensions that pulse in language and flesh. Marys of the Sea speaks of wounds wombs regeneration and how experiences particularly for women undulate against a mythos of loneliness that can without mastery and witnessing devour. Valente writes In other languages my heart/beats us both alive wedges/between words I speak.../ Here it is only poetry that can begin to examine the blue underside of Valentes world and the oceanic perspectives of love that end and begin endlessly in the body both feeding and killing at once. Valentes lyric is sinewy and spiritual. A whole world strands itself beautifully in the stunning eyes of Valentes intuition and intelligence. Always aware of what poetry demands even while it is breaking us apart Valentes poems survive wholly in their heart-break: Early bloomer still waiting for the one poem/ that will bring me home. -Rachel Eliza Griffiths author of Lighting the Shadow Mule & Pear The Requited Distance and Miracle Arrhythmia The title poem of this collection Marys of the Sea alludes to two people at the bottom of a fish tank. So much of what we see in the world is blurred by our experiences and imperfections. These poems too are blurred by tragedy loss and despair. It is hard to see clearly but Valentes perspective is keen. It is the world that is blurred and dirtied. This is a collection of poems best read one by one and not all at once. For as Valente says Let [it] simmer dont eat it all at once. There is so much hunger and appetite in these poems. Like the speaker we all want what is out of reach but sometimes in the world of the poem we achieve our wantings. The book is quest-like in its search for love and its search for acceptance. What lies in its depths are: shadow wives girlhoods bones jarred-starlight alongside Mary and Lucifer--showing the reader the layers of life and death in this so-called new world we live in. -Leah Umansky author of Domestic Uncertainties Straight Away the Emptied World and Don Dreams and I Dream