- Author, Ruth Maus
- Meadowlark - September 2019
- ISBN: 978-1-7322410-6-0
- Purchase:
- Meadowlark Bookstore
- The Raven - Lawrence
- IndieBound
- Barnes & Noble (on the shelves in the Topeka store)
Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel: Henry James
and the Making of an American Masterpiece
In Valentine, Ruth Maus offers a love letter to the world, powering her lines with the engines of parallel structure, formal play, and bright image. Using diction that is conversational, at times outright rollicking, we’re invited into a world where “the righteousness of salt / on a monster margarita / sings psalm and hallelujah enough,” while the speaker considers romantic temptations, one’s call to art, and what lies ahead. This is a creative and sprightly collection.
Sandra Beasley, author of Count the Waves
Witty and
contemporary, Maus’s poems are an energetic delight. Maus seems to blend the
magic of the folk tale with the cutting crackle and static of modern life. The
results are like blasts from the radio, when you turn the dial—each unique,
each with something different to say.
Kevin Rabas, Like Buddha-Calm Bird,
Poet Laureate of Kansas, 2017-2019
There’s
a feistiness to Ruth Maus’s Valentine that I love—not
irreverence or contrarianism for its own sake, but a dissatisfaction with
dominant perspectives. Look at the world again from this angle, the
poems insist: How does it feel to be a fossil? Don’t people play possum, too?
What makes you think Humpty Dumpty wasn’t a girl? Maus poses these
sneakily metaphysical questions and then proceeds to answer them, with brio and
poise, in the most extravagantly musical language.
Eric McHenry, author of Odd
Evening,
Poet Laureate of Kansas, 2015-2017
Like
a heart-shaped box of assorted candies, Ruth Maus’s Valentine has a
confection for everyone; here you will find poems that spring off in unexpected
directions of style, syntax, content, and form. You may, as I do, take special
delight in her use of internal rhymes and luscious word choice: “At the pool
the bronzed assemble, / greased and horizontal, in a / bake-off of burnt
offerings to / their temperamental god”
(“The Sun Worshippers”). You may love the way she can say so much so
economically: “you’re one vanity beyond beauty and one / shiver past any
comfort” (“Dawn in the Land of Odds”). You may find yourself rolling her canted
rhymes over your tongue (from “Persuasion (In Three Acts)”): “stiff appendages”
and “sleepiest places”; “stumble” and “kibble”; “crescendo” and “falsetto”;
“libretto” and “bel canto.” I kept stumbling across unforgettable
images: “herds of umbrellas / crossing the plains of a rainy intersection”
(from “One Day While Driving”) and exquisite juxtapositions: “We rose up tux /
and organdy, tongue and salt-juice skin, / torque and piston” (from “Last Tango
in D.C.”); “…winters / knots of leaden woolens / and clotted theorems…/
croakers cheeky for love” (from “Solstice”). There is music here as well; I
found myself singing along with Maus: “and crocodiles shed tears and repo men
repossess / and the universe wears a starry organza dress” (from
“Communities”), “…displayed true courage, challenged evil thought / provoked a
revolution, belled the cat, / traversed the pirate seas with swag and swat, /
rolled up the sunshine into butterfat…” (from the sonnet “Curriculaum Vitae”).
I urge you to dip into this delicious collection; you will likely find that
Ruth Maus has whipped up a poem suited just to your taste and appetite.
Roy
J. Beckemeyer, author of Stage Whispers
and Music I Once Could Dance
To
In the News:
November 15, 2019
City Hall Spokesperson Now a Published Poet - WIBW, Topeka
October 22, 2019
Former City Spokeswoman is Following Her Passion for Writing Poetry - WIBW, Topeka
October 19, 2019
Topekan's Poetry Book Filled with Humorous, Heartbreaking Poems - Topeka Capital-Journal
August 15, 2019
Senior Auditor Obtains Book Deal - Washburn Review
November 15, 2019
City Hall Spokesperson Now a Published Poet - WIBW, Topeka
October 22, 2019
Former City Spokeswoman is Following Her Passion for Writing Poetry - WIBW, Topeka
October 19, 2019
Topekan's Poetry Book Filled with Humorous, Heartbreaking Poems - Topeka Capital-Journal
August 15, 2019
Senior Auditor Obtains Book Deal - Washburn Review
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