Description

Divided into two parts, this work examines ambition and illusion and then satirizes and studies religious ceremony. The first part is a collection of lyric poems, which suggest that the power of fantasy derives from individual decision in challenging situations, instead of the sway of cultural forces. Poet Chris McCully explores individual action, juxtaposing motivations against major political or social demands and personal experiences. Referencing characters from mythology as well as San Franciscan fishermen, McCully dives into their personalities and choices. Written as a longer poem comprised of multiple voices, the second part of this volume, Mass, centers around the components of the religious mass, particularly concentrating on the meaning and application of the Eucharist. Using several figures that relay various points of view, McCully's verse decides that the Christian guarantee of salvation is a necessary cultural invention about truth. Mass dually works as an elegy and analysis, a celebration and deconstruction.