The Plath Poems by Nava Fader

Published in 2009 by Dancing Girl Press, Nava Fader’s collection The Plath Poems takes the first lines of Sylvia Plath’s poems and turns them into her own. Ranging from abstract to fanciful the poems deserve to be read a second and third time. Below I am happy to share a couple of my favorites:

It is no night to drown in

tunnels are tokens if you could run
slippery sides echoes
murmuring rock demurs
rumbling volcanic gut ash
whispers whippers whippoorwhill
small singing caught
corner of your eye. Soot marked
and steamy. Bottom dwellers have
stones for pockets. Their mouth
an eternal stone. All guesswork gypsy girl
done.

This poem has me envisioning the entrance to a cave and the exploration of its dark and cavernous mouth. I could be wrong about what this poem is about but the tunnels, the soot, and the mention of bottom dwellers paints such a picture for me. I can hear the eerie sounds “murmuring rock demurs/rumbling volcanic gut ash” described in the lines above. It’s a poem that makes me want to go out into the woods and find such a place.



One match scratch makes you real

sprites are not
ghosts are not harpies
or changelings You are just
as I left you The flower in your throat
furry velvet fills
the space of howls.
Can I get there
By candlelight? yes
And back again The black bag
opens and shuts like an eye
come too soon
to light Sit
and stew steaming crock
held in my knees groans
from time to time burns
and blooms your cheeks Mercury
irises rises the metal
stays hot

In this poem I picture the poet brining fairies out of the darkness by striking a match to light a fire. Again, I could be wrong as to what the poem is truly about but this is the interpretation that comes to mind with the first line/title tying to “sprites” and the mention of candlelight. I wonder what is in the steaming crock and what is in the black bag that “opens and shuts like an eye.” I picture magical things happening in the night in this poem.



In this collection there are also words that are used throughout the poems such as “tooth” and “tongue” so I wonder about Nava Fader's mind-set through the collection, if things are taken from a visceral feeling of taste, touch, and sound and then abstracted outwards when using the first lines of the poems. The collection is, as I said, fanciful and abstract and altogether enjoyable.



If you enjoyed this review you can purchase a copy of The Plath Poems by Nava Fader from Dancing Girl Press for $7.00 at:
http://www.dancinggirlpress.com/plath.html

Thanks always for reading, please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…