Kitchen Hymns

Darkness brings revelation in this meditative offering from Ó Tuama (Feed the Beast). In “Who Do You Think I Am,” Persephone addresses Christ in a Hades-like garden. The dialogue unfolds in persona poems, with Persephone quipping, “Christ, you’re such a narcissist.” This interaction epitomizes Ó Tuama’s blending of mythology with a contemporary sensibility, casting biblical and mythic figures into modern, human dilemmas. These poetic dialogues become hymns and anti-hymns that interrogate the weight of creation. Even birdsong reflects the inherent selfishness of existence (“your cheeps are/ me me me”), and a newborn bird’s beak opening for bread is the object of condemnation: “The raw need, the pink demand of you. I can’t stand you.” In “Rite of Baptism,” Ó Tuama posits, “There is no such thing as the past/ just stories told about the past today.” The ghostly liturgy found throughout the collection feels less like a Day of the Dead celebration and more like a quiet reckoning with absence, as the poet baptizes the self into the loneliness of modern existence. It’s an admirable and noteworthy performance. (Jan.)