GHOST ORCHID

by Maurya Simon

For what does the spirit yearn? To know God. Maurya Simon’s wonderful new book, Ghost Orchid , throws fresh light on that traditional question and answer in poems full of the sensuous language of the “Song of Songs” and the graphic images of modern disaffection. She shows us good and evil, both conscious and unconscious, and, even as she doubts such a reality, asks for God’s “touch upon our waking lives.” The yearning to know God, the legacy of human generations, has its latest expression in these ravishing poems.

80 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

Reviews

[Brian Wasserman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm on the fence with this one. Good florishes. I'm not a fan of the diction, or the allusions. Very abstract. I wouldnt say this very accesible to most readers. What I really want is for the prose to be much more simple, where the ideas are carefully thought out, yet it is so wonderfully lucid, that we are astonished by its beauty.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simon does a good job balancing the divine and the earthy here- poems about God which are strangely mortal, poems about strippers which are practically mythological. The wide range of the poems makes it an easy read - you don't get bored, you're not beaten over the head in any way - and the book as a whole has a nice flow. The occasional experiment notwithstanding (Lament is a bit Lamentable, and I really like the poetry it's 'after,' but that was written in a much older English which is more suitable for short alliterative verses), the poems are comprehensible but difficult. You can get the surface on the first reading, but they reward re-readings. Not too discursive, not too 'experimental.' Just nice and intelligent. Check out the section 'Angels of Mercy,' and the poems 'Unfinished Psalm' and 'An Unkempt Brilliance.'

[Jamey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really good ones about Lucifer.
Another excellent book of poetry from Red Hen Press.