Or What We'll Call Desire: Poems [Paperback]

Thisheartrending and darkly playful new collection by Alexandra Teaguetries to understand the edges of self in a patriarchal culture and inrelation to a family history of mental illness and loss. In poems thatmix high art and popular culture (from classical Greek statues to giantplaster artichokes, Cubism to Freudian Disney dolls), Teague interweavesself-reflection with the stories and lives of mythic and historicfemale figures, such as the dangerous-wise witch Baba Yaga andearly-20th-century sculptors model Audrey Munson--calling across timeand place to explore desire, grief, and the representation andmisrepresentation of the female form.Newpoems that showcase high-art and popular culture, vamps and giant artichokestatues, and Freudian Disney dolls in a poignant exploration of cultural andpersonal legacies. [Alexandra Teague] makes her long sentencesinto exuberant pageants, part sex appeal, part enduring outrage, and byno means devoid of comedy. Teagues poems, so oftenfirst anchored in singular moments, evolve into mazes of time and space... Alexandra Teague's third poetry collection is filled with dark musingson love, representation, loss, patriarchy, mythology and history, whilebeing both playful and moving.