Review | ‘NO CONFESSION, NO MASS’

In 'No Confession, No Mass,” poet Jennifer Perrine explores dichotomies under the auspices of saints invoked at the beginning of each of the collection's four sections. The first portion of the book, for example, opens with 'Invocation: (Saint) Genevieve,” and the poem investigates the saint's life with special regard for her mother's feelings about the life Genevieve chose as a young girl.

The contradictions of Genevieve's life - her holiness was declared by a bishop but many doubted her visions and sought to do her harm - serve as a good metaphor for Perrine's collection. The poet, who directs the Women's and Gender Studies program at Drake University in Des Moines, offers up a number of poems with titles like 'Humility | Pride,” 'Envy | Kindness,” and 'Greed | Charity.”

In 'Patience | Wrath,” she opens with a striking image: 'I have broken the bridge over which I must pass/but kept the splinters housed safe in my skin -/they send shivers of pain that I cannot forgive.”

The poem continues with a description of patience simmering in wrath and then ends, ' ... I revel this fiery glory -/let the blaze grew uncontrolled. You thought fool,/not foe, so by your own hand your ruin is sown.”

My favorite of these poems is 'Temperance | Gluttony,” in which the poet recounts a meal with her mother at a dim sum parlor. The poem is full of sumptuous culinary detail even as its subject is denial. The poem ends, ' ... I'll urge/restraint - just a taste, the smallest nibble,/one tiny bit. I'll teach you all I know/of the strap of savor, harness of feast,/how bridle and rein kindle appetite.”

These poems of oppositions are just a portion of the arresting work to be found in 'No Confession, No Mass.” Perrine is dexterous with the tools of poetry - form, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, assonance - and these poems are overlaid with a persuasive blend of the spiritual and the earthly.

Book Reading

- What: Jennifer Perrine will read from her book 'No Confession, No Mass”

- When: 7 p.m. April 6

- Where: Mount Mercy University, Flaherty Community Room, 204 Basile Hall, 1330 Elmhurst Dr. NE, Cedar Rapids

- Cost: free