Beauty Refracted

“The word ‘refract’ derives from the Latin refringere, from re- ‘back’ + frangere ‘to break.’ To break, to break open, to be annealed and broken open anew—these inevitable motions of a pilgrim’s progress are the turf of Carol Moldaw’s new poems, whose formal, organizing trope is the ‘loop,’ that circular continuum that non-linearly crosses and recrosses itself. Loops of rivers, arroyo motorcycle roadways, dreams, Eros’s electric current. The loop that connects an old father’s passing with a young daughter’s maturation from girldom into selfhood. Or, as Moldaw puts it: ‘trade routes, rivers, the routes of the dead.’ Whether what’s literally being traversed is New Mexico, India, Virginia, a hospital room, or the magic carpet of a child’s story-time bed, Moldaw’s poems fearlessly abide on ‘the earth still spinning atilt its daily axis // as it orbits the sun and the moon orbits it, / our deadly fuels, our feuds and constant perils.’ Through the forays of Moldaw’s imagination, beauty and truth continuously recalibrate, re-set themselves. ‘Who can say how?’ she writes in the title poem, ‘She woke, not to a kiss // but to herself.’”—Lisa Russ Spaar

“…you will be engaged — as Moldaw in her highly intelligent way takes a small Odyssey — small, but hers. She sees and says impressions and signifiers in beautiful decibels that we would not otherwise imagine.” Read the full review.

“…Moldaw charts a course through marriage and motherhood with a responsibility to see the world as a teachable moment in poetry….” Read the full review.