{"id":270,"date":"2014-09-10T23:54:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T03:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/?p=270"},"modified":"2014-09-10T23:54:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T03:54:12","slug":"review-of-second-sky-by-tania-runyan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/?p=270","title":{"rendered":"Review of Second Sky by Tania Runyan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Runyan<\/a><\/p>\n

Tania Runyan. Second Sky. <\/em>Cascade Books, 2013. 73 pgs. $12.00.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Lynn Domina<\/p>\n

In Second Sky, <\/em>Tania Runyan\u2019s third full-length collection of poetry, she has taken a unique approach to her content\u2014even given the fact that her previous two collections, Simple Weight <\/em>(2009) and A Thousand Vessels <\/em>(2011), also find their inspiration in the Bible. Here, the poems either focus on the life of Paul or respond to lines from his letters\u2014nearly every epistle attributed to Paul has inspired at least one poem in this collection. What makes Runyan\u2019s approach unique, however, is the relationship between Biblical verses and the poems. Nearly all of the poems include a citation, e.g. 1 Cor 1:25 or Eph 2:9 as an epigraph; when the epigraph refers to Acts of the Apostles, the poems most often respond to the life of Paul as narrated there, but when the epigraph refers to one of Paul\u2019s epistles, Runyan uses a quotation from that verse as her title, e.g. \u201cThe Fruit of the Spirit,\u201d \u201cGod\u2019s Folly.\u201d Such a strategy could quickly descend into gimmick. Runyan, however, uses these scriptural passages as points of entry, as commentary on contemporary life, just as the descriptions of contemporary life in the poems serve as commentary on the scripture. The poems acquire a richness and depth through their allusive titles; they expand the significance of the titles while the titles reveal a potentially greater weightiness to the poems.<\/p>\n

This is not to say, however, that the poems are unrelentingly somber or simplistically pietistic. In fact, the speaker in these poems reveals her character flaws as forthrightly as I\u2019ve seen in contemporary American poetry. \u201cThe Fruit of the Spirit\u201d is filled with self-deprecating humor. The speaker acknowledges that, like many of us, she would find it easier to maintain her faith if God would just provide, well, a sign:<\/p>\n

If the Spirit left me a bushel of pears
\non the counter, I\u2019d find it easier to believe
\nthan any possession of peace<\/p>\n

or self-control\u2014waking without belly
\ndread or keeping Cherry Garcia
\nin the freezer for more than twelve hours.<\/p>\n

Here is a woman after my own heart\u2014those pints of Cherry Garcia are so small, after all, and twelve consecutive hours are so unreasonably long. The reference to Cherry Garcia plays on the \u201cFruit\u201d of the title, of course, but it also aligns orthodox Christian spirituality with the trivia of our daily lives\u2014for many of us likely do spend more time thinking about ice cream than we do about peace on earth. Cherry Garcia also points toward a brand, for if we know Cherry Garcia, we know Ben & Jerry\u2019s, and the poem\u2019s strategy suggests that these branded products might compose part of our spirituality. A couple of lines later, the speaker\u2019s son \u201cspills a lime green MegaSlush in the car.\u201d Does the speaker demonstrate wisdom, understanding, fortitude, or any of the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, recognizing that mere objects hold very little meaning in the great scheme of things, even when they are stained lime green? Nope. She \u201cinstead bang[s] the dash: Crap! \/ Pay more attention!<\/em>\u201d But then she does turn to God, wondering whether her faith has ever been authentic. Jesus responds:<\/p>\n

Come on, you didn\u2019t say shit, <\/em>He says,<\/p>\n

And the ice cream made it past<\/em>
\nthe ten-hour mark. That\u2019s as sweet<\/em>
\nas peaches in August, my friend,<\/em><\/p>\n

that\u2019s juice running down my beard. <\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus, it seems, is light-hearted, forgiving, fully invested in the material world. The fun of the poem emerges from the speaker\u2019s understanding of herself and of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Many of the poems rely on a more serious tone, even as they also demonstrate the acceptance and grace found in \u201cThe Fruit of the Spirit.\u201d Among the poems I find most attractive for its craft is \u201cNo One Can Boast.\u201d The first sentence exploits the sounds available in English as it also creates memorable visual and auditory images:<\/p>\n

On the toll way just south of Kenosha
\nspring sets the boarded-up porn store ablaze,
\ntopaz dousing the peeling paint,
\nthe harp-notes of ice on the gutters.<\/p>\n

Aside from the article \u201cthe,\u201d every word in this excerpt contributes to the alliteration, assonance, and consonance present in the sentence. The first line contains a series of \u201co\u201d sounds, followed in the second with the alliteration of \u201cspring sets,\u201d which then returns to the use of \u201co,\u201d this time with syllables that also function as near rhymes: \u201cboarded-up porn store.\u201d Then the sounds of \u201cablaze\u201d are reproduced in \u201ctopaz.\u201d The imagery reveals how transcendent even the seediest environment can seem in the right circumstances. The speaker explores this insight further in the final stanza of the poem, when the ordinary again becomes extraordinary, for no reason but that it does:<\/p>\n

I kill the radio. Just the hum of the motor,
\nthe pitted road, my slow, steady breath
\nlike the syllables, Yah, weh. <\/em>I didn\u2019t work
\nat this joy. It just appeared in the splash
\nand shine of I-94, as suddenly as these Frisbees
\nand sand buckets in the roadside yards
\nlaid bare by the shrinking snow.<\/p>\n

I could spend several more pages analyzing the thematic developments of this poem\u2014its rich with imagery, and its layered meaning rewards close attention. But I\u2019ll simply conclude with a comment on the facility Runyan has with ordinary language\u2014in the midst of all of this attractive imagery, she inserts straightforward lines: \u201cI didn\u2019t work \/ at this joy. It just appeared\u2026\u201d We\u2019re left with a recognition of how the least significant of objects and moments can lift our spirits, of how reassured we can be by the turning of time.<\/p>\n

When I initially picked this book up, I wasn\u2019t sure if I was going to like it, for Paul is not among the Biblical figures I generally feel most drawn to. I suspect Runyan has read his epistles more carefully than I have, though, and thought about them more deeply. These poems are fully immersed in Paul\u2019s language and life; they are also fully immersed in the language and life of the 21st<\/sup> century. Given how imaginatively Runyan has written about the Bible in her recent three books, I\u2019m intrigued to see what she\u2019ll do next.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tania Runyan. Second Sky. Cascade Books, 2013. 73 pgs. $12.00. Reviewed by Lynn Domina In Second Sky, Tania Runyan\u2019s third full-length collection of poetry, she has taken a unique approach to her content\u2014even given the fact that her previous two collections, Simple Weight (2009) and A Thousand Vessels (2011), also find their inspiration in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-areviewaweek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lynndomina.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}