Bent Upon Light

by Cover art by Alfred Boschl (Illustrator), Marjorie Stelmach

Bent Upon Light illuminates the gap between human reach and human grasp. It is no easy matter to look toward emptiness and reveal its contents. Yet Marjorie Stelmach's poems cast light from that gap through a spiritual prism refracting and reflecting the ways our words so often fail to fit our world, the ways our dreams suggest landscapes we can't discover in our waking lives, the ways we convert both nature and art into emblems, omens, or provisional visions that fill us with brief joy before we reach again. Stelmach employs a surprising cast of unrelated creatures, both animal (cat and fish, bluebird and cow, squashed frog and stuffed owl) and human (Adam and Eve, medieval hermit and Mother Superior, Impressionist artist and early photographer) who follows their longings only to discover their loneliness and limitation. She spotlights each entrance with vivid details and startling clarity. The perceptions may bend us to the breaking point, stoop us with the weight of the world, or bow us humbly in silent witness. In the end, these poems incline us to believe that with whatever love we can summon for this earth and our life upon it, we may bend toward the light.

Genres: Poetry

97 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2009