Fishers of Men

by Kate Gale

Excerpt from Fishers of Men :
The Last Photograph
In the small photograph my mother has her eyes closed. I am shapeless, rather pale probably two. There is snow. My sister has a sled. It is only a year before my mother will abandon me to be beaten, brainwashed. For years I was sure that she despised that shapeless creature until I looked carefully and realized I'd been buried in the snow up to the armpits. She was sitting there, eyes closed that thing that had been her daughter already a part of the landscape, her mind already gone.

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

About the author

Dr. Kate Gale is managing editor of Red Hen Press, editor of the Los Angeles Review, and president of the American Composers Forum, LA. She was the 2005-2006 president of PEN USA. She is author of five books of poetry: her most recent, Mating Season, from Tupelo Press; a novel, Lake of Fire; and Rio de Sangre, a libretto for an opera with composer Don Davis. Her most recent projects include a co-written libretto, Paradises Lost with Ursula K. LeGuin and composer Stephen Taylor, and a libretto adapted from Kindred by Octavia Butler with composer Billy Childs. Her new poetry collection, Goldilocks Zone, will be released by University of New Mexico Press in February 2014. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and children.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are bursting with a beautiful and unusual mixture of brutality and hope. There is an invulnerable face most commonly evident in these poems, yet that face has a vulnerable streak that is all the more touching when I catch it. One might call these confessional poems, but that would seem too whispy, too light. It seems more that these poems follow you down the street while you try to keep your eyes forward, pretending that you notice nothing, while the poems holler obscenities and exclamations at you. Kate Gale's poetry has a force and style all its own. They fascinate.