Black Swan

By Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

Book Overview

Winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Prize

Selected by Marilyn Nelson

Finalist, 2003 Paterson Poetry Prize

"Imagine Leda black--" begins Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon's exciting new collection of poems. Mixing vernacular language with classical mythology, modern struggles with Biblical trials, she gives voice to silenced women past and present.

In Van Clief-Stefanon's powerful voice, last night's angry words "puffed / into the dark room like steam / punching through the thick surface / of cooking grits." She remembers a child's innocence "lost / in the house where I learned the red rug / against my chest, my knees / my tongue, . . . ." Black Swan is filled with pain, loss, hope, and the promise of salvation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822957876
• ISBN13: 9780822957874
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 72 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.3" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Just read it

Jump to titles that intrigue you or dedicate an hour or more to reading cover to cover - however you read this collection...it sings. Truly lyric poetry.If you've got an ear, you'll appreciate the poems. If you've got any familiarity with mythology or Biblical stories, you'll appreciate the mind behind the poems as well. So much of what good poetry should be is here: different voices and rhythms, familiar stories told from different angles, small sensory details forced into the foreground, pain, passion, hope, explorations of form...all without self-important posing, political posturing or self-righteous sermonizing.Get it and read it.