Annabelle Moseley Dresses her Poetry Well
A "conch" becomes the used woman in Awakening. . . . "I saw you upon the beach, / Beating a conch against a rock. -/ It was me you were breaking--/ Shattering the edges of my restraint,/ Waiting to scoop the soft snail of my love. . ." There’s Ms. Moseley’s notable technique again, the snail is the metaphor for love.
It is this kind of double identification technique with fascinating imagery that characterizes Ms. Moseley’s poetry in her chapbook, The Moon is A Lemon. In Daphne you see the character become that something else – in this poem growing into a tree as she flees the lover by whom she actually wants to be caught. It is an intriguing transformational progression made so by the imagistic language that makes Ms. Moseley’s poems in this volume so sensuously rich. Here is one compelling stanza – "When his arms flew around my waist, / As it turned to trunk, / Something sharp in my center/ Cracked like a twig at his touch."
You experience this progression in Sand and Poetry with the speaker describing her emergence from sand "Until sand and poetry/ Clung to my body—And I was dressed in metaphor." This is what she does so well in this chapbook. She attires her poems in daring, innovative simile and metaphoric costuming.
This poem marks another appearance of the marine beach in this volume. Appearing intermittently as it does, the beach in effect becomes the background habitat for the chapbook (something poets might consider similarly using for their chapbooks – utilizing Long Island’s prairie on the Hempstead Plains, a salt marsh, the Pine Barrens or the stretch of ocean beaches as a background habitat).
In her chapbook, Artifacts of Sound, (Street Press, PO Box 772 Sound Beach, NY 11789-0772) the habitat is music. In the Piano Concert "The pianist sways like a medium over a table, / calling up spirits of allegro and andante, / the ghost of each song rising from an escarpment of/ strings-." Ms. Moseley’s poetry is what modern costumed (simile & metaphor) poetry is all about – interesting, compelling language. Now she has a new book with more of this fine language, Still Life (Street Press).
Her novel, The Deaney: Journey To Banba, is not only about a physical journey, but a journey to self-discovery,” says Kim Bridgford, Editor of Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose. “Beautifully written, magical, and hard to put down, this novel reveals Annabelle Moseley's skill as a storyteller. From a secret land that appears in a cup of water, to revelations of difference, to the enduring power of poetry, The Delaney: Journey to Banba, shows us the importance of living life in the moment and being open to transformation while reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and The Secret Garden, the book remains Moseley's own, reminding us, with every chapter, of why we love to read. A stunning debut." –
“Ten Year Old’s Poem Is Exciting Model” and “Annabelle Moseley Discusses Her Childhood Poetry Writing.”)
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Annabelle Moseley
The Moon Is A Lemon
$10
Birnham Wood Graphics,
PO Box 114, Northport, N.Y 11768
Artifacts of Sound and
$10
Street Press
PO Box 772
Sound Beach, NY 11789-0772)
Still Life
Street Press
The Deaney: Journey To Banba
