Various Lies by Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco

In Various Lies, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco evokes an eerie and earthly whole truth from detail: smoke, fire, thin fabric, red, pain, secrets, a wrist, water, dust, dark, boats, a hand, a child, ash, a scar, a bird; a fine lace of language. The line breaks, out/rush, sudden in/take of breath in these poems. The leave-taking of things and people. Small and powerful with brevity and intimate observation; an intense involvement with the life of things-and the remnants when death has passed over. The truth is a membrane away, a place few dare to release the lies to and let themselves experience; a place the poet allows herself to inhabit; not just visit. It is a brave place, producing the intricate poetry that straddles light and dark at once giving us the privilege of our human, poetic lives. As she finishes one poem, which tells us who she is: “but/the charm is in my pocket, dark and hard.”

–Meg Withers