I Have Tasted the Apple

There is a wild vulnerability in the poetry of Mary Crow that allows her to be both passionate and horrified. In I Have Tasted The Apple, Crow tells of her experiences traveling through South America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, territories marked by political upheaval and social unrest. Moreover, Crow's poems speak to the danger of a middle-aged woman traveling alone and to the dilemma of choosing flight or bearing witness. She challenges us to resist becoming anesthetized to the violence and suffering of people in other countries, and affirms that the human spirit can overcome adversity.  

Fault Finding

Even now the ground is slowly shifting
beneath your feet. Even now
zones of weakness are building
behind your back, ready to crack
into fractures. Even now pressures
may exceed the power of rocks
to resist. Think of it:
thousands of faults lace this region.
You live inside a ring of fire
where walls can loom up overnight.
Forces in this landscape
are trying to rearrange your world.
You stand here feeling
you can control nothing,
at any second it is you
who may be heaved up,
and broken.

© BOA Editions, Ltd 1996

Available editions:
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Cloth ISBN: 1-880238-32-2
Price: $20.00
Publishing Date: January 1996
Paperback ISBN: 1-880238-33-0
Price: $12.50
Publishing Date: January 1996