{"id":34725,"date":"2016-08-14T10:45:34","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T16:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=34725"},"modified":"2016-08-15T10:56:31","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T16:56:31","slug":"nancy-takacs-red-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/nancy-takacs-red-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"Nancy Takacs’ Red Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ed Bennett<\/em><\/p>\n

\"116Takacs_Nancy_COV\"<\/a>The myth of Echo as we know it appeared in Book III of Ovid\u2019s \u201cMetamorphoses.\u201d She was a mountain nymph, part of a group with whom Zeus liked to dally. Whenever Zeus\u2019 wife, the goddess Hera, attempted to find her husband during these interludes, she was distracted by Echo, who would engage her in conversation and give Zeus time to escape. Hera eventually figured this out and cursed the nymph with a speech impediment: she would never again be able to initiate conversation and could speak only the last words that she heard.<\/p>\n

As if that were not enough, she falls in love with Narcissus, who spurns her and falls in love with his own reflection. Throughout the myth, Echo is acted upon by external circumstances rather than taking a more active part in her own life. At her death, she turns to stone, becoming part of her beloved mountains with only her voice remaining, repeating the last words of those who traversed among the peaks.<\/p>\n

Nancy Takacs\u2019 Red Voice<\/em> presents us with a reanimated Echo. She\u2019s found her voice and lives in the desert Southwestern United States happily engaging with nature and, especially, with humanity. She cooks, swims, converses \u2013 unlike her myth — she actively engages in her surroundings with a new joi de vivre<\/em>. There are some allusions to the original myth, beginning with the table of contents. Each poem title begins with the word \u201cEcho.\u201d This gives a sense of the repetition of her name being repeated across the space of a mountain canyon as well as across the millennia.<\/p>\n

The first poem in the collection, \u201cEcho the River Guide,\u201d begins with Echo joyfully singing about her restored power of speech:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When I spoke words, they were
\nawnings of balsam, bathing
\nthe woods in a psychedelic show\u2026<\/p>\n

They were simple, carried out to the point of rapture,
\ndropping seeds
\nto plant on the fig of my tongue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Throughout the book, there is a joyful synesthesia, where words are scarlet and vermillion, woods become psychedelic or dangle like a \u201cstar sapphire under the moon.\u201d The image of words planting seeds on \u201cthe fig of my tongue\u201d evokes the visceral difficulty of speaking after a long silence as well as the sweetness of the fruit in a mouth no longer arid with silence.<\/p>\n

Throughout the collection, there are fragments of the original myth of Echo but they have been inverted, recast into a new story reflecting the new circumstances of her life. She is no longer confined to Mount Cithaeron in Greece. She wanders the wild areas of the Southwest from Dark Canyon, Utah, to the Mogollon Rim in Arizona. She has a lover, but unlike Narcissus, this unnamed lover does not spurn her. In this new myth, he becomes the tongue-tied participant.<\/p>\n

He brings me news of eye-stinging air,
\ninversions over valleys. I think
\nthis moment is the key. I show him
\nhow to make chicha to whisk
\naway his sadness. He says
\nhe will not speak until
\nit improves on silence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this new myth, Echo acts upon her lover who is distraught at the condition of the environment. She teaches him to make chicha, a Mayan beverage used as a calming agent, to relieve his sadness. Interestingly, imbibing chicha has religious overtones, but these gods are different and their medicament is benevolent. There are no curses or spells, no damage done by angry deities. In the end, he is the silent one but he remains, unlike the haughty Narcissus.<\/p>\n

Red Voice<\/em> is more than a simple retelling of an ancient myth. Ovid\u2019s Echo is a character punished to the point of despair. Her only legacy is the sound of one\u2019s words repeated among the mountains. Takacs has taken this myth and rejuvenated it with a character reborn in a new world, reaching out to her new life with the enthusiasm of a caged bird freed into the wilds of an exotic paradise.<\/p>\n

This is a well-crafted collection. With the reading of each poem one roots for this newly transformed Echo. Her enthusiasm for her surroundings is infectious and, eventually, we become as excited. Few books can convey this.<\/p>\n

Red Voice<\/strong><\/em>
\nNancy Takacs<\/em>
\nFinishing Line Press<\/a>
\n<\/em>26 Poems\/ 35 Pages
\n$14.99<\/em>
\nThis review originally appeared in Quill and Parchment<\/a>.
\nNancy Takacs is the recipient of the 2016 15 Bytes Book Award for Poetry.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ed Bennett The myth of Echo as we know it appeared in Book III of Ovid\u2019s \u201cMetamorphoses.\u201d She was a mountain nymph, part of a group with whom Zeus liked to dally. Whenever Zeus\u2019 wife, the goddess Hera, attempted to find her husband during these interludes, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2589,35],"tags":[1933],"class_list":["post-34725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews-literary-arts","category-literary-arts","tag-nancy-takacs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/116Takacs_Nancy_COV.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 03:25:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34727,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34725\/revisions\/34727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}