Marsh End Priestess
I compiled individual lines for the cento “Marsh End Priestess.” The poem was written by the members of Special Topics: Trends in Contemporary Poetry — Literary Collaboration and Collage, a graduate seminar taught by Denise Duhamel at Florida International University in 2001. Mitch Alderman, Terri Carrion, Andreé Conrad, Kendra Dwelley Guimaraes, Wayne Loshusan, Abigail Martin, Estee Mazor, Astrid Parrish, Stacy Richardson, Sandy Rodriguez, Jay Snodgrass, Richard Toumey, George Tucker, Jennifer Welch, William Whitehurst, and I wrote individual lines. This cento is also one of my Jane Eyre poems. Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel briefly discusses Jane’s art.
I’ve always wanted to “see” more of Jane’s watercolors and sketches. Compiling Marsh End Priestess provided an opportunity to create a new Jane poem and a new “Jane painting”. In Brontë’s novel, Jane seeks refuge at Marsh End or Moor House, the home of her three cousins, the Rivers.
Jane Eyre Thinks of Tarzan’s Jane at Canton's
I’ m a classic film buff. One of the exhibits in Our America : The Latino Presence in American Art is a striking altar by Amelia Mesa - Bains titled An Ofrenda for Dolores del Río . The exhibit keeps the Mexican actress’ legacy alive and incorporates photos from some of her films. Jane Eyre Dreams of Tarzan’s Jane at Canton’s also borrows from America’ s cinematic history. I’m a fan of actress Maureen O'Hara, who played Jane in many Tarzan movies. Featuring two different Janes in one poem was great fun. I’m also a fan of New York School poet Frank O’Hara, so allusions to various ac tors reflects my esteem for his work. The phrase “that green menace” originally appears in Jean Rhys’ s postcolonial novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), considered a prequel to Jane Eyre,
Two new Jane Eyre-related poems by Rita Maria Martinez, author of Jane-in-a-box, have been published on the Notre Dame Review (Summer/Fall 2015, Issue 40). You can read them here, but this is their description by the author herself:
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