poems of kinship and absolution

The “Poems of Kinship and Absolution” begin by challenging the wish of the male hero to undermine female authority and judgment ("Why have a queen,"), which he must accept to begin his journey into maturity. The poems proceed in dreams ("Tom", "Assuming the colossal form") as he struggles against God, whose distance appears to him hostile and contemptuous, but is not. Declaring that he will break free, the hero whines of frustrating, self-obscuring attachments ("hold up hold up hold up"). He admits that he must train and venture to refine and sharpen himself—he must enter the arena with courage and vulnerability ("brittle, supple"). Ultimately, in collaboration with his loving God, the hero enrolls himself into the joyful and unbroken fellowship of artists, honing crafts in the material realm and bound together as voluntary family ("Brothers, lovers, artists, all!"), all genders and notably women. The journey of this hero concludes in the poems of “Second Act.”

Read along:

1. Why have a queen,
2. Tom
3. Assuming the colossal form
4. hold up hold up hold up
5. brittle, supple
6. Brothers, lovers, artists all!

Amar Shah · poems of kinship and absolution