Affair with the scarecrow: A collection of poems

Affair With The Scarecrow is an original collection of poems about the power and necessity of speech. In this collection, voice is neither stable nor single-minded. It actively seeks to subvert the expected and experiment through line breaks, word choices, and shifting perspectives. It is through voice, and even more the process of telling, that enables the poet to document, preserve, and confront that which would otherwise remain muted in memory. At times this voice is fiercely autobiographical, such as in the final poem "Progress Report;" other times it delves into the unknown mindscapes of biblical male characters, as in "Many Winds Are Like My Son." Yet still other times it is the voice of sickness and pain personified, as in "The Ovary Speaks." In the title poem, "Affair With The Scarecrow," the backdrop is consciously domestic, the voice deliberately ironic and unsparing. The scarecrow is a mythical figure---one who bares many disparate faces and names. Its physical presence is a reminder of something that it intended to frighten but not kill. In this collection, the scarecrow is blended lover, father-figure, tyrant, and pawn. He is the external vehicle by which the poet can divide herself into the writer and the survivor of experiences and feelings. Most deeply, the scarecrow serves as the impetus for the poet's determination to explore and understand herself---even (and particularly) her own failures.