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Swimming the Witch
A Book of Poems
- GenresPoetry
102 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 18, 2020
What cannot lay down, you must carry with you. --Zhao Zhou
I had never hear of Leilani Hall. Thankfully, I was meandering around the library today and found her. What luscious way to spend the afternoon: swimming though words.
Usually I love to share snippets of the authors poems, but Leilani's work is so lovely and weaving, that a line at the beginning falls into place the end, or holds hands across the texts so subtly and so gorgeously, that you don't even realize you have ridden on a wave of words for an entire page. The poems need to be devoured in their entirety.
Procession***
When father came home from the hospital,
voices were small because nothing could be larger
than his pain...
Letter to the Postmaster***
I do not live in Watertown, Sir,
where a mother is married
to a great suit hanging in her closet...
Ante Mortem***
Where is there night not full of the dying?
I mean the before dead.
The not dead yet. The ones who are just this moment
registering the burn of filling lungs, their breath deep with the spring pond,
the ones lying in bed waiting for the daughter to come home,
the ones on the road bleeding out after impact. Out, the paramedics say,
because they know what going looks like,
another wounded night.
....but I continue to gather the dying.
Or the dying gather me.
Utility***
...that tells her there are days
when the body is as useless as the mind,
when even a minister's wife is restless,
the fruit cellar filled with berries,
the cow gone dry.
Unspoken***
So when he places me near the barn and the pond,
pulls out his camera, and locks me in the frame,
he is only making me into paper, another thread of unreliable light.
Limb by Limb
III
The woman child's head
pushed into the room, into the house,
toward the porch, her curved shoulder
holding up everything before them.
I had never hear of Leilani Hall. Thankfully, I was meandering around the library today and found her. What luscious way to spend the afternoon: swimming though words.
Usually I love to share snippets of the authors poems, but Leilani's work is so lovely and weaving, that a line at the beginning falls into place the end, or holds hands across the texts so subtly and so gorgeously, that you don't even realize you have ridden on a wave of words for an entire page. The poems need to be devoured in their entirety.
Procession***
When father came home from the hospital,
voices were small because nothing could be larger
than his pain...
Letter to the Postmaster***
I do not live in Watertown, Sir,
where a mother is married
to a great suit hanging in her closet...
Ante Mortem***
Where is there night not full of the dying?
I mean the before dead.
The not dead yet. The ones who are just this moment
registering the burn of filling lungs, their breath deep with the spring pond,
the ones lying in bed waiting for the daughter to come home,
the ones on the road bleeding out after impact. Out, the paramedics say,
because they know what going looks like,
another wounded night.
....but I continue to gather the dying.
Or the dying gather me.
Utility***
...that tells her there are days
when the body is as useless as the mind,
when even a minister's wife is restless,
the fruit cellar filled with berries,
the cow gone dry.
Unspoken***
So when he places me near the barn and the pond,
pulls out his camera, and locks me in the frame,
he is only making me into paper, another thread of unreliable light.
Limb by Limb
III
The woman child's head
pushed into the room, into the house,
toward the porch, her curved shoulder
holding up everything before them.
November 13, 2008
each time i read a poem in this book, it opens up new worlds. that's what poetry should accomplish, and what hall's work so beautifully and skillfully does. this representation of her talent, her messages continually amaze me. stunning work!
October 1, 2008
A fluid collection. At times startling. Sometimes a lullaby.
May 5, 2012
This is a poetry book I will come back to and read again because Hall's poetry is hauntingly beautiful.
March 7, 2016
She was my thesis advisor back in 2004. I love her work and who she is as a human being.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews