Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

Poet Ava Leavell Haymon's collection, Why the House is Made of Gingerbread, was recommended by a friend, and I have to say that for the most part, Haymon's work, which is new to me, was quite enjoyable. The premise of this collection is that an ordinary contemporary woman finds herself drowning in both life and Hansel and Gretel. Throughout the collection, parallels are drawn between the persona's own life and the fairy tale.

I believe that some readers might find the Hansel and Gretel theme a bit tiresome, especially since the whole collection makes references to the fairy tale, but I found just enough poems to hold my interest. My favorite? "How a Good Girl Learns to Kill" where the main character explains that "Little birds, rabbits/caught in her simple snares//these were easy once/the knife was sharp//But to kill the witch/Gretel had to give up// the first mother."

I couldn't find a lot of the poems from this book online, but one work found on Haymon's homepage is a great introduction to the collection.

http://avahaymon.com/

Hi Karen -
I think I might be one of those people who would tire of the fairy tale. Still if you can write 75 poems about crows or the Pentagon or whatever, why not a whole book of poems with Hansel and Gretel. Anne Sexton did a collection of fairy tale poems, and I admire her, but tired of that a bit, too. Weird, because I love the Grimm tales.

(And I must say I referred to this very fairy tale today when the dog crapped on the rug and I suggested taking her to the forest and forgetting her. Maybe there's a poem in that...)

thanks, sarah