The Daily Glance
Elizabeth Kate Switaj’s Magdalene & the Mermaids is titled well, for the book consists of many poems concerning Mary Magdalene and mermaids, or at least women transforming into and out of being mermaids. I was not sure how these two things tie together in the book, except for the fact that Switaj focuses on Magdalene’s experience as a woman and how strong that is and then focuses on mermaids as feminine forces. Also, in the poems, the female characters seem to be working out a relationship with someone—I am tempting to say a male because of Magdalene and Christ, but I don’t want to presume the sexuality of the mermaids, and the other character only at times is specifically identified as male. There also seems to be a rape story in the background of these pieces, or at least some violence against a woman. Perhaps that's why the mermaids are in the process of transforming. Ultimately, these poems really seem to work best read as a collection, though some would work well on their own perhaps with a different reading out of context.
Elizabeth Kate Switaj’s Magdalene & the Mermaids is titled well, for the book consists of many poems concerning Mary Magdalene and mermaids, or at least women transforming into and out of being mermaids. I was not sure how these two things tie together in the book, except for the fact that Switaj focuses on Magdalene’s experience as a woman and how strong that is and then focuses on mermaids as feminine forces. Also, in the poems, the female characters seem to be working out a relationship with someone—I am tempting to say a male because of Magdalene and Christ, but I don’t want to presume the sexuality of the mermaids, and the other character only at times is specifically identified as male. There also seems to be a rape story in the background of these pieces, or at least some violence against a woman. Perhaps that's why the mermaids are in the process of transforming. Ultimately, these poems really seem to work best read as a collection, though some would work well on their own perhaps with a different reading out of context.
I rise to breathe
& hear you
drop fire on my vertebrae
You do not hear me sing you
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