The Mudra
Poetry. "In Buddhism, a mudra is a symbolic gesture expressive of an inner state. To conceive of a single such gesture--the mudra--brings dramatic tension to the symbolizing act. Such a title is perfect for Kerri Sonnenberg's intelligent and graceful examination of world and language, from the lyrical fragments of the title section--'I'll spend some distance' and;the shapes we fail'--to the beautifully seen landscape of the collection's final lines: 'turned fields without / color was night before roads.' Both the fragment, with its suggestion of absence, and the oblique narrative, with its ghostly suggestion of a 'whole, ' are means of expressing, as if for the first time, worlds we thought we knew. Meister Eckhart's phrase is 'I shall again say what I have never said before.' In the richest poetry, complex occasions are evoked in few words: 'a thread they trust receiving' or 'instance forms a seal.' To read a poem is to watch the crossing of worlds. In THE MUDRA, Kerri Sonnenberg gives us worlds brilliant in their passing."--Paul Hoover
"The symbolic hand gestures in images of the Buddha point toward their origin in ritual dance. Sonnenberg's poems point us to a dance of the intellect among words, words close to music and 'be side reasoning.' Mesmeric."--Rosmarie Waldrop
"Kerri Sonnenberg's genius allows her to hold charged language in a mobile, kinetic, charged tension: as alive as the world it keeps faith with. In THE MUDRA, boundaries blur, meanings shift, positions--and oppositions--present themselves (and vanish), other possibilities appear, 'couldn't I just as well..., ' opening further negotiations between word and world, worded world and self. Emotionally, intellectually 'there is ante through adjusts' as the reader activates this extraordinary, finely balanced and absolutely thrilling book."--Laura Mullen
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