Behind the Blue Gate

Lynn Szabo is an assistant professor of English at Trinity Western
University in Langley, B.C.

Highly recommended by poet Di Brandt, and praised by Carol Shields,
Behind the Blue Gate offers experiences based on the author’s Jewish
heritage and rootedness in her adoptive second home, Israel.

Not before addressing the difficult issues do Rose’s narrators invite
us into their relationships, both human and spiritual. In her series of
poems on the absences of women from “the ancient scrolls,” the
poetic voice locates itself in “the blank spaces where her questions
originate.” In this manner, Rose provides a strong feminist
perspective on those absences, which plead with culture and religion
from the silenced margins. Poems shadowed by Holocaust suffering echo
around others less haunting but every bit as incisive in their
representation of Judaic history and religion.

Rose’s work is rich with poetic facility. Allusion, irony, and
metaphor luxuriate in sensuality. Typography, enjambment, and
unconventional punctuation choices serve to create unusual rhythms and
moods. All lend themselves to musicality and imagery that appeal to ear
and eye alike.