| Summary: | The Sleep Orchard is a collection of poetry written in response to the life and artwork of Arshile Gorky. By mapping the differences as well as the deepening intersections between Gorky and the author, these poems highlight the complexities inherent in attempting to understand another’s life and art within the frame of one’s own consciousness. In addition to meditating on various paintings and the subsequent thoughts they inspire, the text shifts between reflection, recollection, description, confessionalism, and collage, ultimately carving an intimate trajectory through history, memory, vibrancy, and loss. The Invisible Foxglove Spine is a collection of ekphrastic poems in which personal and historical resonances often strive to transcend the purely visual realm of the paintings that initially inspired them. Notions of religion, gender, family, as well as avenues of human connectivity are addressed. The critical commentary explores notions of truth in biographical writing, the relation of this to my poetry collection The Sleep Orchard, as well as voice appropriation in connection with my manuscript on Arshile Gorky. Also investigated are notions of ekphrasis and gender in my shadow collection The Invisible Foxglove Spine, as well as the relationship between ekphrasis and the confessional as considered through the work of contemporary poets Pascal Petit and Deryn Rees-Jones.
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