Another excellent collection by Claudia Emerson – this one Posthumous
The Opposite House: Poems by Claudia Emerson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It is heartbreaking to read these poems—both because they are poignant, real, and heartfelt and because Claudia Emerson dies at far too young an age. My rating is of the poetry, and not in sympathy for her loss. Here, Emerson speaks for the voiceless, dramatic monologues and lyrics for such characters as a glass-eye maker, a man whose father was a suicide, an aged dying woman, and many others. Some of the poems feel more autobiographical, but all show Emerson able to exert the “negative capability” of silencing herself enough to give words to others. And what words they are, simple, eloquent, and true.