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Book Review: The Antigone Poems by Marie Slaight

Certain stories are timeless, and can be remodeled in many ways, without losing their essence, such is the story of Antigone. First introduced to the world as a heroine by Sophocles, she now reappears in Marie Slaight’s “Antigone’s Poems.” However, the heroine of this volume is not a woman, but all of them.

The cover of this volume is haunting in the intensity of its simplicity. Before reading Slaight’s poems, we look at the work of Terrence Tasker, to whom this volume is actually dedicated. Tasker’s charcoal drawings close each of the five chapters of the book, and their raw quality matches that of the poems. Even if there are not so many drawings, they leave their mark not only on the pages, but also in your memory. The beauty of Terrence Tasker’s drawings lies in their ability to allow and almost imperceptibly push the viewer to project their own images onto theirs. The images I saw were filled with pain, desolation, and silent despair.

In addition, the format of the book is very well thought out since it becomes a tool to control the reader. The blank page that faithfully follows each poem forces us to reflect, even if only for fractions of a second, more about what we have just experienced. Dictates the tempo of the Marie Slaight song.

His words obediently line up to the beat of some foreign tribal drums. It is not so much the words themselves, but the way they are used, that empowers these poems. Their order seems unnatural at first, but each time you read them, they speak to you more. Furthermore, many unexpected associations challenge the reader’s imagination “such as scattered dynamite / cloaked power / broken glass.” There are certain words that are almost obsessively repeated (blood, demon, sun) that haunt Antigone throughout her journey. But the rhythm that outshines all other instruments is the fusion of pleasure and pain. It is this fragile rope that intertwines both contrasting emotions that unites all the poems. There is a voluptuousness in pain and an anguish in pleasure that Marie Slaight is not afraid to explore.

Although the feminine spirit seems to dominate throughout “Antigone’s Poems,” the feelings of those who speak transcend the rigid barriers of gender. Universal themes such as love, passion, pain, lust, loneliness are combined in a unique way through strong imagery. The poet uses all of our senses to perceive internal states in a more organic way. So, we get to smell the smell / see the colors / hear the melody / feel the warmth / savor the taste of His emotions.

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