Grace Schulman rises to new heights in these poems of lament and praise. In The Marble Bed, a couple dances on a shore that is at once a shining turf and a graveyard of sea toss, of cracked shells, a skull-like carapace, and emerald weed. Here things sparkle with newness: an orchid come alive when rescued from a trash bin; the new year hidden in an egret's wing; Coltrane's ecstatic flight; a seductive, come-hither angel; a meteor's arc; a rainbow's painted ribbons; a glacial rock that glowers in moonlight. Even the tomb sculptures in an Italian cemetery sparkle with vitality. Schulman, grieving for her late husband, believes passionately in the power of art to redeem human transience. Her faith in art enables her to move from mourning to joyful wonder of existence as she meditates on an injured world and concludes: "Because I cannot lose the injured world / without losing the world, / I'll have to praise it."
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Not raised by found, this dancer, idling on trash abandoned in the computer room, fated to be smothered in a green bag ORCHID
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(@TurtlePPress, 27 October 2020, ebook, 136 pages, #ARC from the publisher via @edelweiss_squad and voluntarily reviewed)
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This is my first time reading the poet. The Marble Bed is a fantastic piece of work so it won't be the last. I decided to read this because I liked the title and the cover image. It turned out to be a good choice and I've discovered a new poet to obsess over. The poetry in The Marble Bed is vivid, beautiful and almost painful at times as Schulman explores grief and loss and the small moments in life that can bring happiness and pain. Some of the poems are stunning and Schulman touched the deepest part of me. The best poems included Fragments of a Marriage, Eve Speaks, Alive and Well: Tomb Sculptures in the Stagieno Cemetery, Still Lifes, Moon Plant, Bald Angel, Caregiver and Names.
