(no subject)

[skygiants]

I've been carrying Sonya Taaffe's latest collection As the Tide Came Flowing In around in my purse for several weeks now until I had the focus and attention to commit to appreciating it properly; I have now finished reading it and put it back on the shelf but I'm honestly a little sad not to keep re-discovering it in my bag like a friend when I'm looking for my keys or my migraine meds. (My bag is very poorly organized.)

As always the whole collection is lovely, but my favorite poems in it happen to be the ones dedicated to people Sonya loves, "Firebrands" and "He Should Marry The Daughter of the Angel of Death" -- these coincidentally are also some of the ones that catch the most echoes of Yiddish folklore in them, though of course one of my favorite things always about Sonya's work is the way it reflects and refracts bits of myth and history and language from all over at different and wild angles. I also loved the title novelette, a horror story about love and loss and the sea: it made me want to revisit all of the other sea-lover stories of Sonya's that this one turns a mirror on, which of course is also always a danger of reading Sonya's work.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Lovely appreciation. I agree that Sonya's sea stories play with elements like a kaleidoscope does--always a new pattern.

[skygiants]

Yes, like a kaleidoscope is a great way to describe it as well!

[chestnut_pod]

Oh, I just read this too! At the Florence + the Machine concert, in fact, which was an awesome place to read it.

"He Should Marry The Daughter of the Angel of Death" was totally my favorite too.

[skygiants]

omg, FANTASTIC place to read it! what an incredible wine pairing :D

[sovay]

I am really honored to have been even a temporary talisman.

[skygiants]

It was a lovely one! <33