Serpent (W)rite, A Reader's Gloss

Martin Singleton was a poet living in Toronto.

This is the third book of poetry from West Coast writer Warland. The “serpent” of the title is Edenic; essentially, the poet has reinterpreted the Adam / Eve myth from a feminist perspective, in “gynogrammar spiraling.” The book consists of eight “turns,” each focusing on a different aspect of the myth-serpent, creation, war, and especially men and women.

Serpent (W)rite is an angry book — justifiably so. Male institutions, and the subsequent subjugation of women, are attacked throughout: “clitoris to shut / we have done as we were told (shut your trap, woman) / both mouths sealed with shame.” Warland recognizes that “representation is itself phallocentric” — witness her observation that English itself has 22 words relating to phallus, as opposed to one for clitoris — and she tries to rectify this situation by creating new language. Thus diction is pushed to its limit: puns and neologisms jostle lyricism and shards of interior monologue: “ejaculations / deep water longing for / androgyny wholeness.”

The subtitle “reader’s gloss” occurs in the right-hand margin, as text source, interpretation, or commentary on the verbal, etymological, or visceral pyrotechnics of the text. The bibliography (“voices of authority”) runs for a page and a half; Warland integrates many types of sources by her energy.

One of the counterpoints to the main theme is that of being lost; the poet’s resolution states, “all we can do is write our way home.” She has done just that: despite its necessary iconoclasm, much of Serpent (W)rite anticipates a new place in history, a future which is androgynous and egalitarian. Serpent (W)rite is a powerful, innovative, and important book.