Qin Warriors & Other Poems ISBN: 0-9625886-8-7 Avranches Press
Poet, teacher, traveler Joyce Nower presents a new book in three sections, each handsomely illustrated with an appropriate selection from classical artworks. The poems themselves speak with a poetic voice delicately attuned to the specific places they celebrate.
Section I, "Poems from China," opens with a poem set in the courtyard at Beijing Normal University. The style is reminiscent of mid-classical Chinese poetry, the voice clearly Nower as she offers a painting-in-words of human figures practicing Tai Chi just at dawn. The local setting is so specific that it includes not only the natural landscape but a subtle reference to the contemporary situation:
before birds ripple the sooty air ... "the polluted air / quiet now, the dust still settled
This section ends with the title poem, "Qin Warriors." A note introducing this lengthy and tightly-controlled narrative reads: "On a hot day in 1974, in the countryside near Xian, some farmers digging for water came upon a life-size terra cotta soldier — the first of what turned out to be an army of seven-and-a-half thousand. They had been ordered by China's First Emperor Qin (pronounced Chin) Shi Huang, founder of the Qin Empire (247 B.C — 210 B.C.), to be his honor guard on the journey to Eternity."
The poems in Section II, "Peculiarities," are more personal, but no less succinct. The major theme here seems to be concerned with the signs of growing older, signs that are met not with whining or self-pity, but with both humor and fearlessness. Nower rarely employs hard rhyme or strict meter, but when she does, she's right on target.
Section III, "Letters from Alexandria," is prefaced with a map of the area, including the Greek islands. Twelve numbered sections of double quatrains review history from the perspective of a modern (female) visitor.
A brief bio and portrait of the author at the back of the book shows her in her studio in a simple black dress with a fine gold chain around her neck, looking formidably professorial. A vast and profound scholarship peeks through in almost every poem, although in order to appreciate these vigorous, stately, and often steely offerings, the photo at the back of her previous book., Column of Silence, may be a more apt image for such a commanding voice. It shows her garbed in a Tae Kwon Do uniform, black belt and all, fists up and an expression as challenging as the mind behind her words.
Feminist and humanist, here speaks a poet who has not merely observed the human condition in all its manifold guises, but has obviously internalized the many roles she studies. This voice, reaching out from the very moment of participation, has the capacity to transport the reader almost virtually to the scene whereof it speaks.
More information (including that great photo of the poet in martial getup) and more poems can be located at Nower's web site: joycenower.com
© Sandy McKinney