Luz Bones

by Myrna Stone

Overview

In Luz Bones, a collection of wild, intense, and fiercely-crafted sonnets and other poems, Myrna Stone takes us on a journey through time and the psyche, that is both novelistic and deeply lyrical. The range of voices—from Martin Luther's to Mae West's—explores both mortality and what might lie beyond it.

Myrna Stone is the author of five books of poetry, including In the Present Tense: Portraits of My Father, which was a finalist for the 2014 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry. She has received two Ohio Arts Council Grants, and the 2001 Ohio Poet of the Year Award.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780997745511
Publisher:	Etruscan Press
Publication date:	05/09/2017
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Myrna Stone is the author of five books of poetry, including In the Present Tense: Portraits of My Father which was a finalist for the 2014 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry, and The Casanova Chronicles which was a finalist for the 2011 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry. Her poems have been published in such journals as Poetry, The Massachusetts Review, The Southwest Review, Boulevard, New Orleans Review, Quarterly West, Nimrod, and River Styx, and in nine anthologies. She has received two Ohio Arts Council Grants, and the 2001 Ohio Poet of the Year Award. A founding member of The Greenville Poets, she lives in Greenville, Ohio, with her husband in an 18th century house they moved from Rhode Island.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Luz Bones 1

Part I Cast About as Vapor

Martin Luther, Plagued in His Retirement by Sickness, Appeals to His Wife 5

Lord Katie, Three Days Before Christmas 6

Kat Ashley, First Lady of the Bedchamber, Reveals the Queen's Condition in a Letter to Her Beloved 7

John Ashley, Master of the Queen's Jewels, in a Letter to His Still-Absent Wife 9

The Presbyterian Minister, Donald Cargill, to His Dead Wife on the Eve of His Execution 10

The Rev. Donald Cargill's Brother, James, on Following a Merchant's Path 11

The Anatomist, Dr. Antonio Maria Valsalva, Converses with His Young Bride Over Supper 12

Elena to Her Second Husband, Niccolo, on the Failings of Her First Husband 13

Lucy Bakewell Announces Her Imminent Marriage to John lames Audubon in a Letter to Her Kinswoman, Miss Gifford 14

John James Audubon Describes His Childhood to His Sons, Victor and Johnnie 16

Joseph Mason, Audubon's Former Background Artist, Speaks to Their Mutual Friends on Loyalty 18

Upon Taking Delivery of Audubon's First Published Bird Prints, Joseph Mason Sees, Then Shares with His Son, a Bitter Truth 20

Lucy Bakewell Audubon Takes Her Grandson on a Late-Night Walk to Find Her Husband 22

John James Audubon's Late Refrains 24

Part II The Siamese Twins Narratives

Nok Thai's Lullaby 29

Nok Thai in Mourning for Her Husband 31

Nok Thai on the Thought of New Lives for Herself and Her Children 33

Captain Abel Coffin on How He and His Partner, Robert Hunter, Have Managed the Twins on Tour 35

I, Chang-Eng 37

Nancy Yates on Her Daughters' Upcoming Double Nuptials 39

1, Chang-Eng 41

Aunt Grace Yates on the Brink of Change 43

Dr. James Calloway, to His Protégé, on His History with the Bunker Brothers 45

Sally Bunker Looks Back on Her Marriage 47

Addie Bunker on Her Sister and Their Conjoined and Separate Lives 48

Robert Bunker Describes the Circumstances of His Father's Death 49

Part III As Present Now as Ever

Hans Christian Andersen Encloses His Miniature Likeness in a Letter to Jenny Lind 53

Jenny Lind to Her Husband After He Discovers Her Cache of Letters from Hans Christian Andersen 54

Riborg Voigt Bøving to Her Husband on His Objections to Hans Christian Andersen 55

Hans Christian Andersen to a Confidant 56

In a Letter to His Cousin, Banker Moritz Melchior Speaks of His Wife, Dorothea, and Her Devotion to Hans Christian Andersen 57

Dorothea Melchior to Her Daughter on Andersen's Impact a Dozen Years After His Death 58

Mae West to Her Longtime Lover Two Hours Before Her Attorney Arrives to Draft Her Will 59

Paul Novak to Attorney Melvin Belli Before the Reading of Mae West's Will 60

H. L. Describes His Recent Near-Death Experience to the Newest Member of His Sex Addiction Therapy Group 61

H. L.'s Former Wife, Mary, on His Checkered History 62

Annie C. Former Security Guard at Walmart, to Her Brother on Her Near-Death Experience 63

In Line at the Celestial Coffee & Dessert Buffet, Annie's Auntie Alice Chats Up Her Sister 64

The Last Known Words of Frederick Valentich from a Disc Discovered in a Field of Alfalfa 65

A Farmer Reveals to His Best Mate the Details of His Sighting 67

Guido Valentich to a Persistent Junior Reporter 69

Alberta Valentich in Mourning for Her Son 71

After Decades of Avoiding the Press, Rhonda Rushton Breaks Her Silence in a Televised Interview 73

Stephen Roby, Former Air Traffic Controller and the Last Person to Talk with Frederick Valentich, Speaks on the Mystery of Valentich's Disappearance 75

Epilogue: To My Parents in the Hereafter 79