What to Tip the Boatman?

by Cleopatra Mathis

There are those rare human beings among us who themselves embody so much myth, history, and poetry that what they do includes a depth of profane and sacred meaning, of before and after, whatever the present event. Cleopatra Mathis is such a poet and hero in a non-heroic age, a poet who comes back from hell, from where all heroes must go and return, offering us her poetry, a gift of new life, beauty, and understanding.

Much of this remarkable book of poems is about mothering--the poet as mother of a troubled and gifted daughter. These are "household poems" in the sense that the Iliad is about the household of Priam. The modern Greeks sometime say that a person is "put twice in the fire," as iron is put twice in the fire to strengthen it. Cleopatra Mathis is such a person and such a poet. Her life is a flame and so is the poetry. The reader has reason to be grateful to her for this lyrical iron.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

26/31

I don’t remember how I found this book of poetry either. But it does not surprise me, as I love the story of Demeter and Persephone, and the first half of this book is a meditation upon that story: poems about loss, about fear, about displacement, about distance. Cleopatra Mathis is also a southerner in the northeast, and her last poem--“Living Here”--about that displacement is quite stunning.

#SealeyChallenge #CleopatraMathis

From “Living Here”

“The field is married to silence, a cloud
lying across it, and when it lifts
no horizon tames my eye. No glory of night
falling at sea, light’s limitless plane.
In the field, containment
is everything, locked as it is
by evergreen shade. The ground
darkens to a threat.
Why not accept the bounds,
love the confined self?”

[Peggy Heitmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cleopatra Mathis jumps off the deep end with this one. She tackles tough subjects like youth suicide, and then a derailed child of her own--cutting and institutionalization and eventually coming back from the hell of all that scared but returned. So much to love about the creative use of language, storytelling and myth woven together in this time of pain and healing for herself and her daughter.

[Heid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful poems that leap myth to madness, always with a mother's mind to guide us back to saftey. These poems tell a story, both universal and particular, of what happens when a child is hell-bent on self-destruction. We come to understand that the old narratives have told us all along how to survive such a hell. Poems that just shake me.

[Malcolm Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of her poems concern her daughter's extreme troubles and the daughter's girlfriend who apparently shot herself at 13. The subject matter is certainly compelling. A bit more "confessional" than I generally like.

[Karen Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful heart-shattering poems of how easily, and how young, we can step into darkness