Thira, Susan Roney O'Brien's new collection, is breathtakingly beautiful, filled with wonder and profound wisdom. She brings to life an ancient Mediterranean civilization, portraying the cultivation of crops for oil, wine, and spices, the making of art, the daily routines and rituals. With each poem, the book accrues greater power and suspense, illuminating the ways in which we attempt to cope with forces beyond our control. Roney-O'Brien's mastery of music and mystery makes one long to immerse oneself in this marvel of a book.Helen Fremont, author: After Long Silence, the escape artist.
Thira is an astonishing work, chronicling the once-thriving culture of an Aegean isle with its frescoes, weavings, fish, spices, rocks and the mythic She Who is Mother, along with Atana, whose love for her doomed sailor ("and I, done with play, / matched his gaze, / unwavering") culminates in the birth of their child. The buildup to the ruin of the island through volcanic eruption is both tragic and terrifying. Throughout, Roney-O'Brien's mastery of sound and image shines-"every / shell I carry is a story I tell," and "We wait, then pound dried grit / sift it through nets, gather the dust, / moisten with caught rain, drain and wrap/for the artists...."
Ethna McKiernan, poet, author of Swimming With Shadows and Sky Thick With Fireflies
In Thira, Susan Roney-O'Brien brings to life the disappeared people of an ancient Aegean isle. Through the women's voices, and like an artisan crafting a Minoan fresco, Roney-O'Brien "...picks her words by weight, / lifts each like an infant to the sun...." She transports readers by what feels to be remembrance as much as imagination. "I am fish, the tide boiling, / I am lava, once stone. I am sea, waves roiling." The poet masterfully poses questions our best selves might ask, "How does the honeybee pray? / What does the octopus teach me of spirals?" She reminds us that like all refugees, "We leave what we cannot carry, /name or sing,"
Rhett Watts, poet, author of The Braiding, No Innocent Eye, and Willing Suspension
