Fortuna Redux - Paperback

Fortuna Redux, named after the Roman goddess invoked by travelers in need of safe passage during a long journey, explores concepts of home, violence, and the body. Speakers ground themselves in place after place, yet seem unable to reconcile their surroundings with adequate feelings of safety to form a home. Threats to the body come from both within and without in this collection, as ekphrastic, geographic, theological, and scientific poems interrogate questions of blame, forgiveness, and guilt. Fortuna Redux takes readers from the quietly panoptic southeastern Pennsylvania foothills to the starkly isolating Baltic winters, with poetic detours into Midwestern suburbs, 19th-century paintings, and New Testament miracles.

Haunted by moral injury, Fortuna Redux offers few answers and little comfort in the aftermath of both interpersonal and self-inflicted violence. Readers follow literary threads of katabasis and odyssey as speakers search for emotional and physical stasis, yet often find their passage blocked. Part I, "Metanoia" juxtaposes attempts at healing with relapse. Part II, "Riga Sequence," documents the emotional aftermath of interpersonal trauma. Intricately descriptive and deeply researched, Faith Ellington's first poetry collection draws from environmental and artistic surroundings to shape a troubled poetic landscape.