Whore, by Sarah Maclay, University of Tampa Press, 2004.
Review by Bridget Kelley-Lossada

Whore is a collection of poems with the city of Los Angeles not so much as a setting as a vital character. Maclay uncovers what it means to be a metropolis, and as such re-imagines Los Angeles. Throughout the award-winning manuscript alternate landscapes shimmer from within creating the feeling of many cities contained by one.

Indeed, Maclay's vision of Los Angeles is wide and varied; its internal geography is stunning and succulent. The reader wanders alone through the pages following the path of its nomadic narrator -- stepping in and out of time as apparitions of places within Los Angeles appear like mirages.

This is how we wake, at the helm of a small boat–
alone in the city
alone in time and the artifacts of time and the names
we inherit and learn
in our white shift,[…]

In Whore, the reader is not led page by page by an omniscient narrator, but must follow what seems to be a trail. The opening poem is a trailhead or a leftover crumb marking a place along the poet's journey not necessarily intentional. Reading this poem, one takes the first step of a solitary journey following the hints and weather forecasts the poet leaves behind.

[…]here, where the field intersects the sky
beyond the fence;

where the crystals slowly scurry
from the firs.

it is a foreign house,
there is nothing to unpack. […]

Maclay is a careful meteorologist. Each poem is littered with suggestions about weather: "the blue snow of twilight", the "dark heat" and "deep humidity" of night and hotels, and the city "serpented by smog". One cannot help but stumble happily along the road with such markers. These and other subtle climatic details allow the reader to feel the multiple and complex seasons of the internal city inhabited by the poet:

Sunday of power lines and the rooftops of industrial buildings–
smeared sand. Sky of Marseilles, Rothko-blurred,
smudges of gray. Weather, oily and warm[…]

[…]humidity in spite of wind.
This is the record of what is near
against the din of the missing.

There is no escaping engagement with the fecundity of the city Maclay presents. Her lush treatment of the absolute and relative reality of Los Angeles is the perfect remedy for the city's ill-begotten label as isolating and seasonless. Maclay redefines for the reader-traveler a verdant inner Los Angeles; a thriving city of countless natural and human ecosystems:

[…]in the sink the water is tepid, you peek
through the curtains, beyond the fence where

the whole town is glamour-fatigued. Sierra Bonita
rustles with morning, a couple of neighbors
starting their cars. The gardeners climb
as usual, to the deck, then crowd the patio

of your basement apartment, blowing dirt under the
door.

Finally, it is up to the reader to determine which Los Angeles he/she means to visit. Maclay leads the wandering reader through the multiple meanings of this large and legendary city. By diving into the city through personal ruminations she has sprung it open for countless others to experience.

Flags drape over tailgates like they're recipes for god. Sky as vacant
as memory. So simply. We could, they could drain the basin. One could.
I buy gum and a light bulb.

For instance, now.

Though raised in Montana, Maclay is truly a native Los Angeles poet. Whore is a remarkable collection and a quintessential travel guide for the many faces of Los Angeles.

Bio: Bridget Kelley-Lossada is a poet and history teacher residing in Los Angeles. She earned her MFA from Antioch University and has studied with the likes of Cecilia Woloch, Eloise Klein Healy and Russell Leong. Bridget's poetry has appeared in "Inkwell", "51%", and "Moondance", as well as the anthologies, "Invisible Plane" (Spout Graphic Press) and "A Pagan's Muse" (Citadel Press).

Contact Bridget Kelley-Lossada at marznymph@yahoo.com