Black Swan

by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

Winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Prize
Selected by Marilyn Nelson
Finalist, 2003 Paterson Poetry Prize

"Imagine Leda black―" begins Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon’s exciting new collection of poems. Mixing vernacular language with classical mythology, modern struggles with Biblical trials, she gives voice to silenced women past and present.

In Van Clief-Stefanon’s powerful voice, last night’s angry words "puffed / into the dark room like steam / punching through the thick surface / of cooking grits." She remembers a child’s innocence "lost / in the house where I learned the red rug / against my chest, my knees / my tongue, . . . ." Black Swan is filled with pain, loss, hope, and the promise of salvation.

Genres: Poetry, 21st Century

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Cedric · Rating 4 out of 5]

can't remember a whole lot from this book, except that I really appreciated and could relate to a lot of the religious references...also enjoyed the readability of the work, which is notable anymore in poetry. Of the 3 or 4 Cave Canem Prize-winning books I've read this one is easily my favorite.

[Cherryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The voice of a woman who had to learn beauty from the deepest wound out.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

My initial thought is that Black Swan reads like a more direct and accessible collection than van Clief-Stefanon’s later collection, Open Interval. I don’t, however, know if that’s true, for while the words are more readily understandable, the topic of each poem quickly discernible, by the end I feel like I’m somewhere I didn’t expect and am no longer certain I grasp what she’s actually getting at. For me, this signals a remarkable poetic talent, for I’m left dazzled, haunted, hollowed out, and humbled by her talent and her care. This is a lovely collection that deserves repeated readings, for I’ve no doubt the deeper truths and insights will gradually reveal themselves—if I’m listening and hearing.

Favorites: “Myth” and “Bop: Haunting”

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a stolid midwesterner, I have all sorts of emotional barriers that poetry has to either pierce or evade. The poems of Black Swan are a little too direct for this and thus mostly failed to resonate.

[Tallulah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the writing itself but I didn't connect with most of the poems. Just not for me.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful and, at times, startling, collection of poems. Several first person narratives about growing up in church, which I love, particularly the dialogue with the narrator's mother (from "Package"):

The cadence of my mother's christianese
rings through telephone wire,
defies time.
I crawl into my own mouth

for fire
of tongues, for language
so perfect I cannot
understand. I find questions

clicking against the back of my teeth.
Don't you want to know
what the scripture said?
I have tossed it

into the sea
of forgetfulness. I only know
Mama must be God She is
so mysterious.


By far, though, my favorite poem is "The Daughter and the Concubine from the Nineteenth Chapter of Judges Consider and Speak Their Minds." It's very similar to what I'm trying to do with my biblical women voice poems. Her interspersing of scripture and white space are fascinating.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are beautifully woven, both sinister and lovely. For my goodreads poet friends: there is a poem in here that inspired in me a still-present obsession with using side-by-side vertical stanzas to represent some kind of simultaneous voice. She's great with the Biblical remixes too.

[Mia Tryst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense poetry, masterful, breathtaking...to be reviewed with sample poem.

[Jan Deelstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon is a complete and beautiful work of art. Her style comes thru in every stansa, and Black Swan impells emotive responses at each word. This is an 'A-list' poet.

[Doralee Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing virtuosic performance of poems that I will return to with pleasure for years to come.