Teaching Shakespeare

By Susan Montez

Poetry. Introduction by Binnie Kirshenbaum. In language that is bold, wild, alarming, and invariably lyrical, the poems of Susan Montez are marked by the beauty and power of unabashedly honest intimacy. Grief that emanates from what's been lost--love, time, marriage, daring, and possibilities--haunts that which remains. "I will not quip / about my love for you since no decree / awaits our sorry tale. That is, my life / is closer than my thoughts of you, and then there is a conclusion: Sorrow is the pleasure of the youth. The dead are ever-present." Cows die from the cold, the bombing of Dubrovnik is recollected, an electric chair is moved from one prison to another, a man is murdered by his two sisters, and Montez fears that the angels will take her newborn child. Her perspectives are truly original and unexpected and not without a wry sense of humor. She ponders her alcoholic husband dying in a car wreck, and at a site memorializing drowned sailors, she observes, "The dead never visit / the visitor's center." The title poem lays bare the effects of poverty and racism with the uncomfortable truth that is the darkest comedy of tragedy. Montez holds firm to William Carlos Williams dictum, "There are no ideas but in things." A formalism of style juxtaposed with tangible content written in a conversational tone renders Susan Montez's poetry all the more complex in ideas and unforgettable in its wake.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1946433659
• ISBN13: 9781946433657
• Release Date: May 2020
• Publisher: Astoria Books / Ugly Duckling Presse
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.3"