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Public Poetry, Kevin Walzer's meditations on poetry, publishing, business, and other creative pursuits
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Kevin Walzer, a poet, poetry publisher, husband, and father.
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Tue, 16 Jan 2007
Book of the Day: Babel's Stair by Rhoda Janzen
Babel's Stair by Rhoda Janzen is a deft, sometime wickedly funny exploration of the worlds of beauty, religion, and gender issues. Janzen explores her experiences growing up in a religious community and working as a fashion model. These unusual subjects are given memorable treatment in sharp, witty poems, such as "Why I'm Right for the Job":
Why I'm Right for
the Job
Folding underwear in symmetrical
squares of three, blackblackblack,
thongthongthong, strikes a heartnote
of ease. From early childhood I trained
in pews that I'd lemon oiled the day
before. I stiffened Sunday mornings,
with my washboard spine (hands folding
silence into sunshine while the sermon
looped like a cumbersome bee.) I
rearranged nothing, drew no squiggles
on no bulletin, did not accost the tiny
cups for grape juice. Face like a hush,
interior licked by flame, I remained, yet
was consumed, a burning bush. Consider
as well my fashion years. The braided
chutes of youth had come undone, huge,
accidentally spectacular: pure cold flume
that took me to the banquet of the world.
Still my greatest pleasure was holding
still for photographers. Rotate your chin
ten degrees to the left, do not move, do
not move, hold it, freeze it, hold that
mouth. Oh, prayer!--I can pray without
moving a muscle. I can stare any god
right out of the room. Budge me, and I
will loose a glacier that cuts inchmeal
through your centuries. Heaviness
is mine to command. I am the mother
of frozen monoliths, spook-white,
inexorable, and still in my Sunday clothes.
Janzen's work is distinctive, accessible, and rewarding for a variety of readers.