Ignite

by Rona Shaffran

Overview

Speaking a language we understand, Rona Shaffran's poems tell the story of remarkable things that can happen in a broken relationship. These poems inhabit the sharp edges and rich depths of a union too long untended. Ignite begins in wintry suburbia with a man and woman who have lost emotional and physical connection. A magic-realist plunge into the atavistic tropics of desire breaks this barren matrix. The exotic landscape sparks resurgent passion, which leads to a dramatic and healing turn-around for the couple. The poems of disappointment don't waste a word. The poems of arousal are sensual, succinct and poignant. The garden grows. The transformation is real.

Straightforward on the surface, yet taking us to deeper levels of understanding, the poems are unflinchingly honest. Individually, they startle, and evoke primal recognitions. When read in sequence, the poems of Ignite impel us to the story's conclusion. The man and woman come alive as their joy and sadness meld together. There is dignity in this progression, and the restraint that comes with dignity.

These are poems for readers and lovers in all their seasons, yet there is hard-won maturity to the lovers in Ignite. Everyday gestures transform into universal experiences, taking us to the heart of emotions and experiences of a lifetime's duration. The language, refined to bone-essential elements, almost disappears to create an intimacy with the reader, a collective energy, a human experience that we all share.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781927426173
Publisher:	Signature Editions
Publication date:	04/09/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	96
File size:	330 KB

About the Author

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Rona Shaffran lives in Ottawa, Ontario. She recently retired as co-director of the Tree Reading Series, one of Canada's longest running poetry venues, where she is also a member of the board of directors and organizes master poetry workshops. Rona Shaffran is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and the Banff Centre Writing Studio. Her poems have appeared in Canadian literary journals, including Vallum, in an illustrated chapbook published and distributed in Canada and Australia, and in several collaborative chapbooks. She has won honourable mention for the John Newlove Poetry Award. Retired several years ago from federal government work, Rona now devotes time to writing and to travel, and is at work on a second manuscript that includes both poetry and prose. Ignite is her first published book of poetry.

Read an Excerpt

Spellbound

Through tall grass to the world's edge,
I walk where coastline careens
to a restive sea below
the volcano, that hulk fuming
against a torch red sundown.

I climb its black back,
my feet trembling
on the cone of tuff and cinder,
the smoke curling
from earthen fissures,

and from the volcano's peak,
javelins of flame pierce
the sable sky, firing
smoky clouds fluorescent orange.

I lay my body
on rocky soil, transfixed
by the luminous heavens,
when a wayward star
plummets past me, blazing
a blue-white trail to the sea.

Like a brass key cut
for a steel lock,
he approaches me,
hazel eyes velvet,
horse-like nostrils flared,

he strokes my shoulder
with small, insistent breaths.

My breasts swell,
their flesh electric.
Blood unleashes
charged particles that circuit
from him through me
and back through him,

each entry to my body
drawing inward,
clenching,
quivering,
opening,
till, deep in the recesses
of my core,
a rusty latch
unlocks.

Stay up here with me
all night, here on the edge
of the world.

Table of Contents

I

Burnt Forest 15

Chaste 16

Impasse 17

Early Morning Mist 19

Unseen 20

Manna: a prayer 22

Unclothed 23

Night's Corridor 24

Impact 25

An Opening 29

Cracks 30

City Limits 31

Three 33

Light: a prayer 34

Improbable 35

Trapped 36

Erosion 37

In the Rain 38

Suspended 39

Salve 40

Entreaty 41

Lullaby 42

Shifting 43

Plunge 44

II

Small Island 49

Dawn's Song 52

Guzzle 53

Ignite 55

Chimera 56

Spellbound 58

Seamless 60

Cistern 61

Fulcrum 62

The Clock 63

Opal 64

Toffee 65

Green Kimono 66

Wheelbarrow 67

Each Time 68

Flight 69

Of all the ways you have touched me 70

Long Night 71

III

Shadow 75

kushoftheWind 76

Top to Tail 77

Bowl 78

Scent of Jasmine 79

Compass 80

Gently Down 81

New Clothes 82

Chant 84

Entrusted 85

Boldly 86

Life Mate 87

Autumn Angles 88

At the Window 90

Blue Branches 91

Beat 92

Acknowledgements 94

About the Author 95