Publisher's Synopsis
Poetry. 'Not the drowned girl but the swimming one, ' Rivara writes in ANIMAL BRIDE. These poems are written at the crossroads of womanhood: to be a woman in captivity or a woman breaking free. Like a 21st century Persephone, the woman at the heart of ANIMAL BRIDE journeys out of the underworld of a violent marriage to find strength in her animal self. Bride, wife, mother, lover--Rivara wrestles with many forms of being female, and summons the natural elements of fire and ice, air and water, to become a shapeshifter. I found myself reveling in the lyric energy
of these lines, and how the voice grows brasher, more authoritative, more courageous. Poem after poem, there's a gathering strength and resilience. This is a powerful story of womanhood and transformation--between hell and hope, fear and freedom, silence and singing.--Ansel Elkins
