Loom by Mary Romero

What makes this book most marvelous is not the rich conceit whereby Penelope finally gets in a few words, sharp as that conceit is (and as those words can be); nor is it the savory mouth-music of the language, gorgeous and resonant; nor is it the technical prowess manifest in rhymed couplets, echo verse, abecedarians, sonnets, and sonorous free verse—no, it is rather that this book is wise, and wise about precisely those things that are most important to us: “love, like a school / of fish practicing // their precarious / and fluid union,” and time, which allows us “to slowly / weave the hours—a tapestry going nowhere, / except perhaps to inch towards / impertinence, a kind of quiet / resistance,” and even the ineffable, which Mary Romero responds to with a single sentence: “And I thought your absence was the mystery.” For is not presence the great mystery? Faced with such awe-filled softenings of the heart, readers may wonder whether they’re ready to undertake the journey to which this book invites them, but they need not fear. When it comes to “the hazardous waters between // the mind and jagged heart,” Romero’s Penelope has this comfort to offer: “I have mapped that passage / with many crossings, my love, // clear enough for you / to sail it in my wake.”

–Stephen Kampa, author of “Articulate as Rain”.

“These dramatic monologues and lyric observations offer a profound re-vision of the familiar epic journey, most notably giving voice to the women of our story. They also provide a compelling challenge to the disposition that would privilege the “far-eyed Odysseus,” choosing instead to honor all that dwells near-at-hand, the sacred matter immediately at-hand. These poems recover the specific savor of those persons, places, and things we touch, those beloved strands with which we weave our cosmos.”

—Scott Cairns, author of Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems and Anaphora

I am both delighted and intrigued by these cleverly crafted poems. Not only does Mary Romero enter the forests of legend and ancient myth to find contemporary significance, she invites us into these explorations and kindles within the reader a kind of primal response. Her verses are both precise and elegantly styled, invitations for both reading and re-reading.

–Luci Shaw, poet and author Angels Everywhere and The Generosity