Stone Mirrors

Stone Mirrors

YA/adult poetry/herstory
"I need to go where no one knows what happened.
Edmonia looks out the window. She wishes she could
camoflauge herself like a white hare on snow,
a brown toad by a tree trunk. She opens a drawer
and grabs her pencils like a fistful of arrows.
She packs her spare dress, her sewing basket,
A mended comb, a nightgown; she doesn't have much else.
She says, I'll start again."
No exact date of when Edmonia's story starts. Clues point to
Civil War times. She's in a boarding school that takes in blacks and
scholarship students. But within its walls race and class divisions
are observed. One day two white girls are caught in an unchaperoned
coed sleigh ride. Back then it would have been a major scandal. They
promptly take sick, accusing Edmonia, who had helped them dress for
the excursion, of poisoning their tea.
Edmonia longs to be an artist. But cleaning white people's
houses seems to be a far more likely fate for a black girl running
away from her past.
In real life Edmonia became a sculptor whose work is now in
prestigious museums. Jeannie Atkins faced a formidable problem when
she decided to write about her. She found a novel way to meet the
challenge in her Stone Mirrors: the Sculptore and Silence of Edmonia
Lewis.
"The open questions about her life frustrate biographers, but
seem suited to verse, a form that delights in solid furniture and bric-
a-brac, but is also comfortable with mysteries and leaps through
time. Relying on both facts and gaps in history, I imagined my way
into a sense of what might have been, the way a sculptor of historical
figures starts with givens but creates her own vision."
Don't let this deceptively slim volume or its designation deter
you from giving it a try. In fact I would most recommend it to poets,
particularly ones like me who aspire to write novels in this form.
Dialogue feels natural yet blends perfectly with the book's overall
cadance. Take this scene when Edmonia's accuser, about to leave the
school, admits her wrongdoing in privacy:
"Helen doesn't step in, but stands wearing
a shawl and hat, her hands in her woolen muff,
all ready to go. Edmonia almosts shuts the door,
but Helen steps forward. She whispers,
I'm glad you said nothing, you won't ever,
will you? My father would kill me
if he knew everything that happened."
Self centered mean girls these days would say just about the same,
making sure victims won't spill the beans.
Description is a powerful combination of sparse (see first
quote) and lyrical language. My favorite part is:
"Every day is a new trial.
Edmonia's neck turns stiff from the stares
of students who sit behind her.
Words split in her ears, blur before her eyes.
She no longer needs crutches
as oak leaves grow to the size of squirrel paws,
the season to find a spot near the river
to fish with nets and spears
and plant squash and corn and beans."
By summer Edmonia walks without a limp. Who wouldn't empathize with
Edmonia's plight. And the details let you know she had to endure it
for quite awhile.
On a personal note, I am posting this review a day early because
tomorrow there will be no time. I'll be taking the bus to Portland to
spend the day with Katie, Jacob, and Archie cat. I've been looking
forward to this day for months! Whatever we do will be wonderful and
amazing.
A great big shout out goes out to Katie, Jacob, and Archie.
jules hathaway


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