Late Self-Portraits

By Mary Morris and Mary Morris

A compelling collection of poems, Late Self-Portraits conveys an intimate description of lives through a collage of portraits and affliction. Weaving history and the sacred, both intimate and worldly, one encounters a blind Jorge Luis Borges with his mother, a glass confessional in the of Notre Dame Cathedral, Frida Kahlo in Mexico, ghosts, a neurosurgeon's prognosis, and Marie Laveau in New Orleans. Whether in a field with Joan of Arc, encountering the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, or having dinner with Hades, these are haunting poems of loss and unearthing, equally bold, personal, and tender.

From "Dinner with Hades"

He shows me a birthday cake, candled. My name is written in pomegranate
seeds. It's like vertigo. Just before he seeks to devour, he halts to birdsong--
sound of goldfinch, bluebird, hawk, lilting of sparrows. Of whippoorwill
and dove. Wings flap, so many wings, a cool breeze as leaves unfurl into a
once forgotten green and I am back on earth, held in my mother's arms.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1611864224
• ISBN13: 9781611864229
• Release Date: February 2022
• Publisher: Wheelbarrow Books
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.8"