In the Understory of Her Being by Christine Weeber
$14.99
This is dream language, like being given a glimpse of a secret interior world that has some counterpoint in the actual physical world. There are certain interior landscapes—emotional, psychological, carnal—that are possibly hostile, possibly ecstatic, and equally unknown. Christine Weeber has given us the map. Her poems point the way toward a view where love is not only the distant star, it’s the welcoming shore. Her poems are mysterious, mystical, desperate at times, a whole world reflected as love. The poems contain beautiful and elegant language, deep with feeling, unleashed emotion, and expectations that are fully realized.
–Burt Rashbaum, author of Blue Pedals
“Christine Weeber‘s images and poetry surely have a Nerudian influence or presence. Weeber, however, projects an authentic attitude that explores the often silent voice or unwritten sighs of the one beloved in Pablo Neruda’s love. With a deep awareness of her existence, an intense passion for life, and the strong agency of her intimate poetic confessions, Weeber’s verses embody a voice that is fuller and more personable, with a magnetic humility and deep care for language. Those who love the very early and late Neruda will sense the influence, but will be moved in ways that are more pleasantly mystifying.”
–Moisés Park, author of Y el verso cae al aula
Description
In the Understory of Her Being
by Christine Weeber
$14.99, paper
978-1-63534-549-0
2018
Christine Weeber is the author of Sastrugi, a poetry chapbook. Her poetry and prose have appeared in A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park; Under the Devil’s Thumb; Solo: On Her Own Adventure; The FEAST: Books, Art, Food, Film, and Travel e-zine, and other publications. Christine is a development editor and the copy editor at SAPIENS, a new online anthropology magazine. In 2008, she was the poet-in-residence at the Gilpin County Public Library in Colorado.
https://www.christineweeber.com/
kt –
Christine Weeber’s In the Understory of Her Being
This is a collection of poems about the beauty of love in all its visceral, fierce, tragic, and ultimately wonderful forms.
‘We break without knowing.’ (III) But then sometime later…
‘…you scoop the last word
from between the tidal pool’s starfish
and its closing anemone
and return it to my ocean’s empty mouth.’ (IV)
Christine writes explicit lines which describe but allow (or inspire) your imagination to run with the possibilities and multiple meanings. Each poem runs into the next with profound expectation, loss, and ecstasy. Indeed, the poems should be read consecutively and all in one sitting—repeatedly.
There are sexual moments which might have been written at the very climax or remembered with a wink years later. At times I almost felt Christine had shared an intimate moment with only me and had to remind myself this is a published volume and so a secret shared with many, one reader at a time. Her imagery is magical and truthful. It is at once grounded and liberating. I began with
‘Your heart landed like an owl on my shoulder,
light and lost, surprised,
shivering—’ (I)
and through ‘damp sand’, ‘moss temples’, scorpionesque memories, resiny caves, breasts, sternums and spines to arrive most pleasurably at a continuum of understory. One which takes your hand and lies down with you, lushness all around.
If you have forgotten the quiet dawn, if you feel stale, if you have lost love or been loved well, if you have spent too much time in the city, or not spent enough time alone or with a lover, these poems will remind and revive and embrace you.
‘Deep bows’ to you Christine for allowing the inhabited world in and around you to speak out and for being a conduit of love. I am already thrilling for everything your ‘bonfire heart’ shares.
Rivvy Neshama –
The cover art and title of this collection perfectly mirror the mystery, sensuousness and depth of the poems within. “The Understory of Her Being.” Indeed!