Demeter Goes Skydiving (cuRRents) - Softcover

McCaslin, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0888645511 ISBN 13: 9780888645517

Publisher: University of Alberta Press, 2011

Synopsis

What if Demeter, the timeless fertility goddess of ancient Greek myth, slipped through a crack into the twenty-first century, shook off her ankle bracelets, corn tassels, and garlands, and began a tour of our improbable culture? Award-winning poet Susan McCaslin exercises the profound mother-daughter trauma forged in the Demeter-Persephone myth with unapologetic modernity. This sequence takes on a novel life all its own: Hades steals away the maiden into a cult/culture of distorted body image, addiction, high anxiety, and rampant consumerism. Mother Demeter must negotiate this alien world of health clubs, paparazzi, and so-called reality shows locked in spiritual winter. McCaslin's lyrics are by turns profound, hilarious, and devastating as she journeys to the heart of a mother's love for her daughter. Here is poetry that seeks ties to the past inside the present, poetry that speaks to us all.

About this title

About the Author

Susan McCaslin is a poet, educator, scholar, and author of fourteen volumes of poetry, including her most recent, Lifting the Stone. Susan lives in Fort Langley, BC. Having been honoured with Faculty Emerita status after twenty-three years as a professor of English and Creative Writing at Douglas College in New Westminster, BC, Susan is now a full-time writer, giving poetry workshops, talks, and readings. Visit her website at www.susanmccaslin.ca.

From the Back Cover

What if Demeter, the timeless fertility goddess of ancient Greek myth, slipped through a crack into the twenty-first century, shook off her ankle bracelets, corn tassels, and garlands, and began a tour of our improbable culture? Award-winning poet Susan McCaslin exercises the profound mother-daughter trauma forged in the Demeter-Persephone myth with unapologetic modernity. This sequence takes on a novel life all its own: Hades steals away the maiden into a cult/culture of distorted body image, addiction, high anxiety, and rampant consumerism. Mother Demeter must negotiate this alien world of health clubs, paparazzi, and so-called reality shows locked in spiritual winter. McCaslin's lyrics are by turns profound, hilarious, and devastating as she journeys to the heart of a mother's love for her daughter. Here is poetry that seeks ties to the past inside the present, poetry that speaks to us all. Susan McCaslin is a prize-winning author of eleven volumes of poetry and eight chapbooks. Her work has appeared in literary journals across Canada and the United States. She has edited two poetry anthologies, is on the editorial board of Event, and is an editorial consultant for The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. She completed her MA in English at Simon Fraser University and her PHD at the University of British Columbia. After twenty-three years as an Instructor of English and Creative Writing at Douglas College in New Westminster, Susan is now a full-time writer, giving poetry workshops, talks, and readings. Susan lives in Fort Langley, BC. Visit her online at www.susanmccaslin.ca. . I am She, Isis gathering dismemberment in her arms. Mary weeping at the foot of the cross, all wandering, grieving mothers brought to prescience in my body. -from "Demeter Pauses at the Foot of the Kokanee Glacier" Too soon modified, mortified, commoditized, too soon married, lean, a fatty chomped by the machine, you, no heavier than Venus in her prime, you, of the infatuating perfumes no one will buy. They have ripped you apart like Orpheus and your stripped fragments fly all over the web where your shaven head still goes on singing. -from "Demeter Tries to Adopt Britney Spears"

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Alberta Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0888645511
• ISBN 13: 9780888645517
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 136