Books by Mary Leader

The work in Beyond the Fire does not conform to any one habitation, nor aesthetic persuasion, nor name. On the contrary, just about every poem invents its own territory and its own terms. Some poems are straightforward narratives, while others repeat spells and castings. Many are figural; some are classical; some even aspire to anonymity.

These poems rush the reader into the urgency of feelings - lovelorn, bawdy, grieving, pleading - but, never self-pitying. Each poem turns upon and returns to the infuriating and glorious correlations between love and art (learning to love, trying to make beauty or art, trying to be a beauty).