Fiction
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Inhabiting Barbara
Tomash’s The Secret of White
one has the
experience of living inside a work of art—
not on the finished canvas, but
inside its becoming, in the wrist and eye, in the very brush stroke
where the
artist is wed to the source of color,
form, and motion, and “yellow is everywhere collapsing.” Tomash
astounds with
the integrity of her inquiry, at once delicate and sturdy, accurate and
loving,
a meditation
on the triumphs of representation as much as its ghosted removes
from “a white that cannot be recited or
painted.” These exceptional poems lead
us “to see again how an infant sees, before the mind creates
vision.”
There
comes a time in life when a poet sees so clearly into
“The White Interior” that she perceives light,
death, and time together. It is this perception of the deep and essential frame of light and darkness that gives
The Secret of White its ceremonial power. It’s the presence of all colors together that Bonnard sought to
understand, the sensual curve of the lily’s sepal, and the fleeting whiteness of skin touched by the painter’s
blue hand. By means of white and the vivid reds and blues it contains, Barbara Tomash examines the
mystery of perception, that things do indeed exist in “realism’s white heave ho,” that through our masks of
being we might see and know before our mother calls us to shlofen, gey shlofen. Tread softly though this
fierce and lovely book. Paul Hoover
death, and time together. It is this perception of the deep and essential frame of light and darkness that gives
The Secret of White its ceremonial power. It’s the presence of all colors together that Bonnard sought to
understand, the sensual curve of the lily’s sepal, and the fleeting whiteness of skin touched by the painter’s
blue hand. By means of white and the vivid reds and blues it contains, Barbara Tomash examines the
mystery of perception, that things do indeed exist in “realism’s white heave ho,” that through our masks of
being we might see and know before our mother calls us to shlofen, gey shlofen. Tread softly though this
fierce and lovely book. Paul Hoover
Barbara
Tomash’s The Secret of White
is a marvel of
language, written with acute patience and precision.
Each line and image is crafted with the care of embroidery, the pen and paper giving way to the needle and
thread— “if I read what I have written I will loosen the stitches.” Loosening these stitches reveals a world rich
with color and a beauty embedded in the everyday—“plums/ cracked open, red threads spun/ into grey—” Truong Tran
Each line and image is crafted with the care of embroidery, the pen and paper giving way to the needle and
thread— “if I read what I have written I will loosen the stitches.” Loosening these stitches reveals a world rich
with color and a beauty embedded in the everyday—“plums/ cracked open, red threads spun/ into grey—” Truong Tran
Barbara
Tomash
Barbara Tomash was
born in Washington , D.C. ,and raised in Los Angeles
She worked extensively as a multimedia artist before her creative interests
turned her toward writing. In 1998,she received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing
fromSan Francisco State University
appeared widelyin literary journals, including New AmericanWriting, Colorado
Review, and ZYZZYVA. An earlier version of Flying in Water was a finalist for
the Autumn House Press Book Award and a semi-finalist for the Slope Editions
Book Prize and the Nightboat Poetry Prize. She lives inBerkeley , California
with her husband and son.
She worked extensively as a multimedia artist before her creative interests
turned her toward writing. In 1998,she received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing
from
appeared widelyin literary journals, including New AmericanWriting, Colorado
Review, and ZYZZYVA. An earlier version of Flying in Water was a finalist for
the Autumn House Press Book Award and a semi-finalist for the Slope Editions
Book Prize and the Nightboat Poetry Prize. She lives in
with her husband and son.