The Never Wife

by Cynthia Hogue

Poetry. "I drive into an August tropic rain./ The road's behind a waterfall and I'm/ hunched squinting like a crone/ for signs. Ghosts mark time ..." (Moving to New Orleans, 1991). "I am moved by Ms. Hogue's apparent knowledge of people, and by her ability to present them convincingly in her poems. This is a quality all too rare in contemporary poetry, characterized as it is by a nearly universal self-absorption. There is wisdom here, and acute observation...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0966602846
• ISBN13: 9780966602845
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Mammoth Books
• Length: 78 Pages

Customer Reviews

Rubied Trees

"The Never Wife" is a very open and direct book with just enough cryptic passages to tantalize the intellect, but not so many as to frustrate the casual reader. There is however, an abundance of obscure referents which seem culled from personal history rather than erudition. As the title would suggest, Hogue's writing is part of the feminist discourse so I read this book with an unchallenged detachment. However, one line struck me as quite remarkable, "For dazzling her ken, the season / looms with its rubied trees of ruth.". Rubied trees is a fine description of fall foliage and dazzling her ken suggests an aesthetic response I can identify with. Ruth means sorrow or regret. It is a Middle English word. I don't think poets should use archaic words in their poems.