The Descent of Inanna
Descent of Inanna is a long-form poem, re-imagining of a mythological katabasis, the descent of Inanna into the otherworld.
The Descent of Inanna
"Valente's version is rich as the earth; you can smell the dirt under the fingernails, taste the rotting leaves in the mouth...she's updated the poetic technique, and "translated" the ancient ritualistic (and highly repetitious) poem into an idiom that makes sense to a modern reader, without trivialising, without exchanging the strange, rotted flavour of the original for too-contemporary banalities."Poem exerpt:
(Review by Hal Duncan)
The Descent of Inanna was released in March 2006 from Papaveria Press as a hand-bound limited edition of 50 copies. Catherynne donated 15% of her royalties to the Global Fund for Women.Her foot is pointed like a dancer's, laces inward,
indicating darkness. The bend in her knee is not quite classical --
the bone protrudes, white-blind, and her calf is mapped:
scar, welt, sun. It hesitates, ostrich-elongate,
and the ribbon knotted at the perfumed hollow of her ankle
flutters.The wind out of the deep smells of myrrh and cardamom,
and meat just shy of spoil.Does she hear the sea far off from her? Does she hear the working
of worms in the ceiling of loam?
