Guardian: Poems

Cleopatra Mathis writes "all of God's poison made water." Her poetry discovers, then just before she seems to say finally "This is true," she strikes us with the opposite. She gives us the heaven and hell of it - or does she show us the pin in the butterfly of the poem? Giving birth and the Creation are among the subjects of Guardian. They seem inevitably hers, with their exquisite pain and pleasure. Doesn't she know that the Creation is a subject too large to hold? No, she doesn't and thank God for that! Her work sanctifies, but it also gives us a full measure of the possibilities of degradation. She is a human guardian we can trust, but she is also a guardian angel who cures us of some of our blindness.