Kelly Cherry has achieved almost cult status among poets; while she may not be as widely known as, say, Billy Collins or Jorie Graham, Cherry has a devoted following. Reading the poems in Rising Venus, it is easy to see why Cherry attracts such a following.
Cherry has a unique voice and style, blending feminist verve with formal rhyme schemes that lull you with their steady rhythm, then slap you upside the head with a burst of ideology. For instance, these lines from "Man on the Hall":
How to imagine the maddening feeling
of being worth less than a man? The ceiling
's in shards.
--It was not easy. Our lives bled
on the books we wrote, some you may have read.
Cherry is a romantic at heart, and the ups and downs of her love life provide some good fodder for her poetry. But Cherry is even more brilliant with her wit and playfulness. The first poem of this collection is titled "Adult Ed. 101: Basic Home Repair for Single Women" and provides double-entendre laden insights such as in the section on "Drywall":
Studs should be sixteen inches apart
but are often fewer and farther between
and let's face it, you may have seen your last stud.
Cherry's skill at producing truly crafted poems shines through in her works about art, which are lyrical and moving. These lines from "On Looking at a Painting by van Gogh" are remarkable:
The blue sky is a porcelain pitcher
from which light pours itself,
cooling the canvas, serene benediction
of brightness, the long green throat
of the cypress stretching thirstily toward azure.
Cherry's ability to laugh at herself and the world, yet see so deeply into her own heart and the beauty of her surroundings prove her mettle, and make Rising Venus a pleasure to read.
