Uncommon Geography
Finalist 2007 Paterson Poetry Prize Testimonials: These are reverent, haunting and meditative poems, ethereal yet earthy, transcendent yet intimate. With Halscheid as our guide, we discover the beauty and meaning of the world we live in. Praising natives in "Nights Here" she says "what courage it took to manage the deepest darkness." In "Andrew Wyeth" she describes a man painting the same hill a thousand times and never tiring." She learns from ancient peoples, from animals, from the sun and the moon, from water and air. She is no less an explorer than Thoreau, living alone on Walden Pond or an astronaut who rides on the moon. Therése Halscheid's poetry is pierced by a deep spiritual beauty and power. In Uncommon Geography, she has found her true home in the world."─ Sondra Gash "'What is not spoken / can never become fully alive," says a character in one of these poems. Therése Halscheid speaks, articulates, and brings to life an inner geography that is intensely moving. She composes spare yet lyrical, vivid lines that are "a luminous testament to feeling." ─ Arthur Sze In these radiant and intense poems, Therése Halscheid makes us believe that she is alone in nature. It is as if light itself is speaking. The reverent observer sites and, yes, sights, the bottle chapel of "Excavating Prayers," the stunning quiet of an elk farm, the rituals of rain maker and fire maker: the sun "igniting the actions / of daily hours." Halscheid is a listener to the "Voice of Air," with its "valley breeze," its "floating breath." We will recall the beauty she leaves us with. ─ Elaine Terranova Reviews Therése Halscheid writes a unique “religious” poetry, a kind that comes out of very early religion. It leads back, beyond pantheism, to ancient customs and “First People.” It is influenced by folklore, and by the sun. It is steeped in primitive awareness, and an impassioned connection to earth. If nature hadn’t existed since before time began, it would have created itself in response to the poetry of Therése Halscheid. And if ancient folk myth weren’t slowly moving in our universal unconscious already, it would be awakening us now, as we read the sentient poems in her new collection. Therése Halscheid is an observer of nature, as perhaps many other poets are, but she moves beyond surfaces to explore cosmic things, considering, for example, the extinction of the sun. From the Comstock Review The Comstock Review see http://www.comstockreview.org Sample Poem Availability Direct through the Author: Copies are also available: Schools, individuals, groups may order discount through The Book Connection |