Terese Mason Pierre, Manifest
From Toronto-based poet Terese Mason Pierre comes Manifest, a gorgeous speculative/fantasy-filled journey to the outer limits of human desire. Mason Pierre’s romantic, dreamy, and ethereal language stops time: and in that held moment, we are transported to lands, beaches, and worlds that may only exist in our collective unconscious, but that move us toward a profoundly intimate understanding of what it means to be human.
This chapbook is printed on white paper with cardstock cover lovingly designed and typeset by Dani Spinosa. Gorgeous cover art by Mia Carnevale. Poetry edited by Tiffany Morris.
Sample Poem
Violet
There are no biologists anymore,
only blacksmiths
She found a book in a box of items
to be buried with her grandmother—
inside, photos of plants, with green, green
leaves, purple petals, slender stems
droplets of water collecting picturesquely as if
they knew they were being archived
for a dry, dead future
She gets to work sketching
crafting, heating, molding, painting
an object, yet a whole once-world.
The authors cannot answer her questions,
they cannot see what was reaped,
what was fought, and lost, what was ignored
Not real, she repeats as she works,not true
but that word means nothing,
Many things are not real now—
her food, her sky, her arm
When she is finished
she holds it up against the yellow light
is satisfied with the sheen,
the deceptive life of it—
she sticks it in the red earth,
turns the sprinklers on