Highlighting Enter Water, Swimmer
Contributing writer Laura Brackin writes about our newest poetry release Enter Water, Swimmer by Mary Morris.
Mary Morris’ new book, Enter Water, Swimmer, is a hauntingly beautiful collection of poetry that reaches deep into the soul and touches those places where we ponder life. Each page offers the reader an opportunity to connect with nature and what Mother Earth has to offer her children.
Morris explores the fears surrounding, and promise of, new life in the poem “Sonogram,” while also opening up to end of life moments in “Vespers.” Other poems such as “Acupuncture with Dr. Hao” and “Dr. Suto’s Herbs” take a look at illness and finding hope for healing. On this theme, she says “Heaven / and science, a complex math,” in “Anatomy” (89).
Morris clearly appreciates art in many forms as she highlights the mid-seventeenth-century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer, in two poems, “Girl with a Pearl Erring, Vermeer” and “Girl Reading a Letter, Vermeer.” She has a clear, unique voice as she pays homage to these famous paintings. Likewise, Morris honors the great American jazz saxophone player, John Coltrane, in “Love Supreme” where she gives special recognition to particular movements.
“Train to Rome” describes a speaker who, as a young woman visiting the Vatican, ponders a statue of Mary holding Jesus and meditates on how the mother had given her life over to grief, where she, the speaker, had not yet known what grief was about. Morris leaves room for the reader to discover that the present speaker is quite aware of it now. This poem rides on innocence, giving over ultimately to a realized sorrow.
Morris’ poetry is simple while still being honest and powerful. Enter Water, Swimmer is a collection you will want to have on your shelf.
LAURA BRACKIN is a student at Sam Houston State University where she studies in the MFA program for Creative Writing, Editing, and Publishing. She works part time with the Texas Review Press and desires to work as an editor upon graduation, while also building a career as a prose writer. She lives in The Woodlands with her husband, two teenaged kids, and her English pointer.
