brief review of Mari L'Esperance THE DARKENED TEMPLE -- by Alan Botsford

THE DARKENED TEMPLE by Mari L’Esperance  

THE DARKENED TEMPLE by Mari L’Esperance. University of Nebraska Press, 2008, 100 pp. $16.95 (paper).

(Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry)

Born in Kobe, Japan and raised in California, Guam and Japan, Mari L’Esperance (PK 2007) has written a book of poetry entitled The Darkened Temple (Bison Books, 2008). This is a book of poems that does the work, to use L’Esperance’s words, of “shouldering,” “hauling,” “sifting,” ”bracing” and “hunkering down” in the face of loss. In its conception, in its craftsmanship, in its moral bearings, in its production design, in its ambition, and, not least, in its humanity, it is a book that will resonate as only the authentic can.

-- Alan Botsford