Glorious

By Joan Cusack Handler

Joan Handler's poems speak of the transmigration of a woman from an emotionally stifled girlhood through the first tentative steps of self-discovery, to, finally, the apostasy of womanhood and the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0970718640
• ISBN13: 9780970718648
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: CavanKerry Press
• Length: 106 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.2" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Truly a force of nature

This is Joan Cusack Handler's first published book of poetry, though many of her poems have been published individually. This is a GLORIOUS book that takes you into the poet's private world with amazing honesty and bravery. Her words and images blaze across the page leaving the reader both exhilerated and exhausted at the same time. What a wonderful debut for Ms. Handler and how lucky for her readers. You must buy this book.

A WISE AND VISIONARY WORK OF ART

Joan Handler's collection of poems GLOrious is a kind of bildungsroman in which a woman discovers her spiritual strengths, but only after learning and unlearning the influence of her early experiences. In the opening poem, Pageant of Rages, a woman and her mother-in-law stand in front of New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine "spitting hate/ feeling grateful /and loving each other for it." Understanding the euphoria that comes from expressing oneself fully - even one's rage - the woman says, "It is pure genius and a running away of the heart that frees us." Here is the central theme - the life force - of Handler's daring work. As a good Catholic girl, this same woman (for these poems follow a narrative thrust as the main character moves through time) has consumed - and been consumed by - Church doctrines, among them: "Thou shalt NOT be angry." She has tried so hard not to be bad but she feels like a sinner. At twelve, she still wets the bed, making her, in her own eyes, dirty: "She drags around shame like a dirty old pee stained blanket." At 6 feet, 2 inches, "barely thirteen and/ tall /as a Woman, but/she has no breasts/two peas on an ironing board!" No wonder "she dreams of hiding." Handler manages to create a character both specific and universal. I grew up short and Jewish yet identify with her plight. When eventually the woman begins to confront her demons and deities - fear, pain, God, the rigidity of her upbringing, her flawed relationship with her body - she does not look away; she does not flinch. These poems are often brutally honestly, sometimes surreal, always full of passion. The narrative models a life lived audaciously. I admire Handler's determination, her insistence, really, on taking the hard, truer path and this intense psychological quest is what gives the book its largesse of spirit. The varied visual shapes of these poems reflect the complexity of the challenges with which she grapples. Yet her work is lucid; she writes with unusual grace and finesse. I love the finale. No longer hiding, the woman has moved past the legacy of restriction and shame, beyond anger, thus claiming her authentic self and a haven in the world. Unlike the first poem, Pageant of Rages, in which two women hurl insults at each other, now joy and freedom are expressed in images of beauty and acceptance: the sea, the woods, a new comfort in relation to God and family. In the Mirror/At the Beach is a wildly imaginative fantasy in which two female characters, a woman and her angel, turn into winged creatures. As they rise above the white caps of the sea, transcendence, Handler seems to be saying, is within reach.