Sinners welcome Poems

The author of the memoirs The Liar's Club and Cherry began as a poet; this first collection of verse since 1995's Viper Rum alternates between a familiar, unsparing autobiographical vein and a new commitment to Christian belief. Karr, a recovering alcoholic and a temperamental skeptic, entered the Catholic church in 1996, and poems about God, Christ and Christian rituals may draw most readers' attention: "Disgraceland" describes "my first communion at 40," and tries to blend Karr's characteristic acerbity with her interest in religious compassion: "You are loved, someone said. Take that and eat it." Some of the strongest of Karr's clean, direct free-verse efforts have less to do with religion than with her friends, children, parents, vexing early life. When she writes of "the winter Mother's ashes came in a Ziploc bag," fans of her prose will relate. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Poetry "was most crucially the first source of awe for me, partly because it could ease my sense of isolation," notes Karr (best known for her memoir The Liar's Club) in the essay "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer," which acts as an afterword to this collection. Karr converted to Catholicism in 1996, "after a lifetime of undiluted agnosticism," and many of the poems embrace God with an intensity born out of violence that refuses to be masked. The titles of some poems say it all: "Disgraceland," "Waiting for God: Self-Portrait as a Skeleton," or "Overdue Pardon for Mother with Knife." One of the most memorable poems, "Coathanger Bent into Halo," begins: "Gathering up my mother's clothes for the poor/ I find the coathanger that almost aborted me." It continues through a vivid description of the hypothetical abortion, ending with the hope that the same hanger can also be twisted into "a halo to crown my son's head." These poems, even more than the essay, demonstrate poetry as religion's kin. While not for the unquestioning devout, this book should stand beside works by writers like Thomas Merton or William Everson (a.k.a. Brother Antonitus) in both poetry and spiritual collections.-Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Sinners Welcome Poems Pathetic Fallacy When it became impossible to speak to you due to your having died and been incinerated, I sometimes held the uncradled phone with its neat digits and arcane symbols (crosshatch, black star) as if embedded in it were some code I could punch in to reach you. You bequeathed me this morbid bent, Mother. Who gives her sixth-grade daughter Sartre's Nausea to read? All my life, I watched you face the void, leaning into it as a child with a black balloon will bury her countenance either to hide from or to merge with that darkness. Small wonder that still in the invisible scrim of air that delineates our separate worlds, your features sometimes press toward me all silvery from the afterlife, woven in wind, to whisper a caution. Or your hand on my back shoves me into my life. Sinners Welcome Poems . Copyright © by Mary Karr. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from Sinners Welcome by Mary Karr All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.