000			01367n a2200229 a 4500
001			040780
005			20231009192707.0
008			130625s1989 nyu 000 0 eng
010			_a89045650
020			_a9780060162139
050	0	0	_aPS3555.R42 _bB3 1989
082	0	0	_a811.54 ERD
100	1		_aErdrich, Louise
245	1	0	_aBaptism of desire _b: poems _c/ Louise Erdrich.
250			_a1st ed.
260			_aNew York _b: Harper & Row _c, c1989.
300			_a78 p. _c; 24 cm.
520			_aThis rich book will attract Erdrich fans. Like Jacklight, her first book of poems, it has tales of Potchikoo, a Chippewa Trickster, and of Mary Kroger, a butcher's wife. In the complex and masterful ``Hydra,'' a poem written during pregnancy, Erdrich addresses both the mythical serpent and her unborn child--``Blessed one, beating your tail across heaven,/ uncoiling through the length of my life''--and compares herself to both Mary and Eve. Writing ``Snake of hard hours, you are my poetry,'' she concludes, like Eve, that its place is ``at my ear.'' As in a sequence on saints and sacraments, Erdrich here appropriates and transforms the Catholic theology learned as a child. A graceful, deeply metaphoric sequence on gardening, childrearing, and marriage concludes the book.
650		0	_aChristian poetry, English
650		4	_aPoetry, American
942			_cMO
999			_c248196 _d248196