The New Madrigals (Gesualdo)

Abstract

The New Madrigals (Gesualdo) Anna Maria Hong (bio) I All alms palm up: All aftermath at last—caress the cause—applause, applause—of thisappalled mismarriage—mass sans gravitas—to haste— the bride is dead. Her tender evidenceshed like a dress, ripped to a half, a beastof Eden—jeweled vowel—etched of sense. O vile lyric! Avid wrist, which killedthis wife—who killed the wife inside! O thickveil—bride-white, blind mirror, soldered will to sound, a soul of wood. To open/closeone's blood beloved, golden box unlockedand tossed, one cry forever shut and thus— left to device, devout was I to undertakethe timbre. Under sun and overher life, I buried another, building one pause and rung upon each rigor. Murder.Music. Could there have been a different order? II All . . . my . . . lump: All fate or myth to last,caress the case—p-please, p-please—of thisappl-lied miasma or rig, my . . . sense grave ties to host— [End Page 64] the bird is did. Her tune-drive-danceshed like duress . . . bestof din: jaw, lid, vow . . . itched of sins. O evil . . . race . . . which killedthe saw of, who killed the awe inside. O thickvial—bird-whit, blond mire, rear-slid, red wall— to sound. As life owed. To pain, close . . .guile done, box unlocked,no date as sad, no cure . . . no deaths left to devoice . . . to waste. No.. . . took that ember . . .bird not here . . . no pose, no dare, no gap, no cheer eager. More dear,my [sic]. III All: All lastcaress of thisshed,which killed, killed inside. O thick to sound. Close.Box locked.Left to a different ardor. [End Page 65] Anna Maria Hong Anna Maria Hong is the author of the novella H & G (Sidebrow Books), winner of the A Room of Her Own Foundation's Clarissa Dalloway Prize, and Age of Glass, winner of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center's First Book Poetry Competition and the Poetry Society of America's 2019 Norma Farber First Book Award. Her second poetry collection, Fablesque, won Tupelo Press's Berkshire Prize and is forthcoming in September 2020. A former Bunting Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, she has published poetry and fiction in many journals and anthologies including The Nation, The Iowa Review, Green Mountains Review, Ecotone, ENTROPY, Poetry Daily, and The Best American Poetry. She is an Assistant Professor at Mount Holyoke College. Copyright © 2020 Pleiades and Pleiades Press