The Museum of Mary (Poems)

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Mary Jo Bang’s The Museum of Mary guides the reader through a kaleidoscopic gallery of artworks that each depict a shifting portrait of Mary—the name of the Madonna, the Blessed Virgin, the grieving mother of Christ, the doomed monarch, the author of Frankenstein, the television star, the Grammy-winning singer, and the poet herself. These intimate and alluring poems echo across time to give voices to women who were, who are, foreclosed and silenced. One Mary is told she has no power over her body and what will happen to it. One Mary’s claim leads to her imprisonment and beheading. One Mary is arrested for dressing like a man. One Mary is ignored in her lifetime and forgotten ever since. One Mary looks deeply, imaginatively into artworks and writes down what she sees, what she has lived.

A resounding feat of associative leaps, The Museum of Mary is an innovative way of encountering the world and a daringly honest way of confronting the self.