Fallen away then from the present tense
Secure the Shadow by Claudia Emerson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“And I, as I have always known myself,
am fallen away then from the present
tense into reminiscence–the lucid was.”
So Claudia Emerson wrote in this fine collection published in 2012, just a few short years before she did indeed become the “was” no longer lucid. Secure the Shadows is her way of taking stills of what has died, her father, animals, and her future self, now lost to us forever, except in the wonderful poetry she left behind.
Her eloquence is in the exact word and image. Her emotion is never untrue but always real—and measured just enough to be contained within those words and images. Emerson’s poetry is very personal and autobiographical—but in her experience we read ourselves and indeed the universal human experience.
Most of the great poets writing today are women. It is sad that we lost this one so very early in her life and with so much more we wish we could have heard from her. So take the time to read this collection and the others that we have.
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