Makeshift Cathedral

by Peter LaBerge

An heir to both James Wright and Frank Bidart, Peter LaBerge writes seductive, austere psychologies, a “cathedral / of fields, cul-de-sacs, northwestern Ohio” in the background—and in the fore, “queerness unsolved.” I admire the discomfort of Makeshift Cathedral, the conflation of faith and the fragile body, of youth and sexual agency: “Pleasure—I never wanted this,” he admits in “Obey.” LaBerge shines a necessary light on cruelty and injustice, and yet. And yet, like hope, “the sky blooms in spite // of its return to night." This is a disturbing, deeply humane book.
—Randall Mann

Genres: Poetry

39 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2017

Reviews

[Sarah Etter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful poetic talent. So excited to see what else LaBerge brings into the world after reading this one.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The collection offers testimony for a number of queer dead--often those who died in acts of violence--and for a nameless transgender girl held in solitary confinement. I appreciated how these poems recollect and remember those people, bringing their bodies and their stories back into our lives when we might otherwise forget.

From "God of Compassion, In Mercy Befriend Us," written for Diane Delia Ferrara, who was murdered by her lover:

Someone erases a couple letters
and suddenly I am he again
but I turn off the body like when it rains

and god has turned off the clouds,
like when the barren sky at midnight
wants to be something, but faces four gunshots:

nothing, nothing, followed by nothing, nothing.