Looms - Paperback

Poetry. The title of LOOMS signifies the weaving tool as well as the shadowing appearance of something. These woven tales were inspired by Barbara Guest's statement that a tale doesn't tell the truth about itself; it tells us what it dreams about. The strands of their surreal allegories converse, one idea giving rise to another, and the paths of their dialogue become the fabric of the narrative. In a second meaning, something that looms remains in a state of imminent arrival. Such are these tales, like parables with infinitely deferred lessons.

In tightly woven tapestry, Martin's 'backstreet songs' re-invent a music of knowledge that navigates the hucksterism and catastrophe threatening our planet. The movement of her threads is fugue-like, punctuated by oboes and clarinets, mockingbirds and cicadas. Here, in the dream-space of time-lapse film, forms of life and ideas collide and morph, rippling through centuries of human consciousness to unravel as quickly as they ravel. Here, above all, Martin makes it possible to dance among our 'origins in snake oil, ' our 'crusades to mirages' and our 'accidental fictions'.--Meredith Quartermain

A dreamscape on the outskirts of town, 'in the badlands of the vernacular, ' these hopeful, haunted poems populated by children and prisoners 'hover between' realms domestic and exterior, real and imagined. Like candles described herein, this book gives off a melting, tactile glow.--Arielle Greenberg