From acclaimed New York-based Canadian poet, Adeena Karasick, comes Gap Riot Press’ second chapbook, Salome: Woman of Valor.

Salome: Woman of Valor includes poems from Karasick’s Italian-English libretto of the same name. The poems explore, exalt, and reclaim the figure of Salome as feminist. The poems enjoy joyful linguistic play, using references to Hebrew texts, popular music, Italian opera, and various other texts to reveal a feminine form that refuses to be a static object, dancing, praying, and fighting for herself.

Featured Poem

(((SCENE 13)))

And as shadows scream masked
in the fury of decay
yes I will yes say yes i will dance
an au courant bon vivant vampy-amped
nymphy symphony
an uproarious emporium
of morbid dysphoria

i will dance

7 words in the first verse of the Torah
7 days, weeks of counting of the Omer. Sitting Shiva
7 days shaking
7 species
7 directions in the world.  Visited by
7 guests in the Sukkah, 7 by 7 handbreadths. And dance
7 circles on Simchas Torah
7 holidays, branches and blessings as the bride circles the groom
7 times. called to the Torah.
7 Noachide Laws, notes and seas
7 days of preparation for the construction of the Mishkan in the
desert.  And wind the Tefillin
7 times binding yourself to the Law
7 days of plagues. Of prayers
7 cows and stalks of grain.
7 levels of heaven, continents, sefirot
7 sparks of light,
7 gates of entry for
7 female prophets

And, on Yom Kippur, the High Priest
sprinkled the blood in the Temple
7 times.