In Teresa Caders <strong>The Paper Wasp</strong> three poetic explorations extend from thebooks opening image of a paper wasp spinning its white nest on a terra... » 

In Teresa Caders The Paper Wasp three poetic explorations extend from thebooks opening image of a paper wasp spinning its white nest on a terrace inancient China while the future inventor of paper watches.The paper universe assembled by the wasp teems with both destructive andcreative forces mimicking the demands of the life cycle. Its beautiful surfacebecomes the springboard for the invention of paper and the transformation ofwriting. The poems in the first section concerned with speaking readingwriting printing and healing have at their core the mystery of creativity.The second section of The Paper Wasp looks beneath the papery surface of thenest to explore the connection between physical and figurative birth as Cadermines the descent into the unknown that characterizes both pregnancy andcreative work. And in Internal Exile the long poem that forms the thirdsection of the book Cader addresses the destructive power in the nest throughthe life of Eugenia Ginzburg the Soviet writer imprisoned by Stalin forrefusing to denounce a colleagues book. Faced with the loss of both herchildren and her country Ginzburg turned to writing as the medium throughwhich she could bear witness to her brutal physical exile and her inner psychictriumph.Caders voice moves effortlessly from the physical to the metaphysical yokingthem with verbal wit and vibrant imagery. The Paper Wasp marks a new lyricinquiry into the meanings of creativity conception and birth and theirrelationships to writing. «