Gods of Water and Air - Softcover

Dacus, Rachel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0615842410 ISBN 13: 9780615842417

Publisher: Aldrich Press, 2013

Synopsis

Rachel Dacus evokes painting and mythology with equal parts grace and lyricism in her new collection, linking her father's struggle with Alzheimer’s with Claude Monet, and the mostly kind (but sometimes cataclysmic) landscapes of Northern California with world politics and her own search for spirituality. Dacus’ book will invite you to journey with her through adventures in art museums, pie baking, and eagle-spotting.
~ Jeannine Hall Gailey, author of Becoming the Villainess and She Returns to the Floating World
In Gods of Water and Air, Rachel Dacus turns a painterly eye onto both the nooks and crannies of our world — “hints of rose madder in the cerulean,” a palm tree's “rigid, rattling arguments” — and “the blue immensity” that holds us all. Though she uses metaphor in nearly every poem, Dacus is secretly a literalist, searching for the thing itself, what cannot be represented, what is “not yet spoiled.” This book will show you, over and over, that true freedom, to an artist's daughter, is “Never to be framed.”
~ Molly Fisk, author of The More Difficult Beauty
In this richly textured and shockingly luminous collection, Rachel Dacus directs her steady gaze on art's meticulous and sometimes maddening labor, on the deep grief and explosive beauty of a daughter's attachment to her fading father, and on love's latent withering and re-blossoming. Each poem in this collection is masterfully written, brimming with observation's ardor. She asks us questions that are to be savored. She begs us to grasp time, rein it in, and let it go: Be a net./Catch the world by letting the knots slip. Ultimately, her poems are esctatic intersections/explorations of time, space, and memory.
~ Deema Shehabi, author of Thirteen Departures from the Moon

About this title

From the Author

What do art, gods and goddesses, tunafishing, Alzheimer's Disease, painting, and animal reincarnation have to do with each other? These poems and tales trace the surprising connections we discover in living with love, friendship, death, and our spiritual natures. There are poems about prayer, a one-act play on the imagined afterlife of dogs, essays on growing up artistic. I hope this book inspires you. And thank you for looking inside -- and possibly getting your own copy -- of this book. May the gods of all the elements of the earth smile on you.

From the Back Cover

Rachel Dacus evokes painting and mythology with equal parts grace and lyricism in her new collection ... Dacus' book will invite you to journey with her through adventures in art museums, pie baking, and eagle-spotting.
- Jeannine Hall Gailey, author of She Returns to the Floating World

In Gods of Water and Air, Rachel Dacus turns a painterly eye onto both the nooks and crannies of our world, "hints of rose madder in the cerulean," a palm tree's "rigid, rattling arguments," and "the blue immensity" that holds us all. - Molly Fisk, author of The More Difficult Beauty

Each poem in this collection is masterfully written, brimming with observation's ardor. She asks us questions that are to be savored. She begs us to grasp time, rein in it, and let it go: "Be a net. Catch the world by letting the knots slip."
-- Deema Shehabi, author of Thirteen Departures for the Moon

Edition details

• Publisher: Aldrich Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0615842410
• ISBN 13: 9780615842417
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 136