Salem in Séance Poems by Susana H. Case

Salem in Séance

Poems by Susana H. Case

WordTech Editions

www.wordtechweb.com


ISBN: 9781625490025

93 Pages

Review by Dennis Daly

Witches (i.e. those who have signed the devil’s book) cannot get through the Lord’s Prayer without stumbling, or recite the Ten Commandments in order and intact. So, for a stutterer like me, saying "h-h-h-hallowed be thy name" in the greater Salem of 1692 could be the onset of some serious judicial trouble. And, indeed, all sorts of spasmodic tics, flaws and quirks convinced that pent up joyless citizenry that Satan’s diabolical plan to destroy the Puritan Church had neared its triumphal conclusion.

Susana H. Case uses her poetic rendition of these happenings to give voice to some of the twenty executed women and men of those times and also to describe the complicated motivations of the accusers and political backdrop involved in the progression of this hysteria. She also engages her subjects with direct comments creating snippets of dialog in many of her poems. This unusual convention is not always successful but when it is it adds mightily to the poem’s power.

In her poem Sarah Good Case summons the voice of one poor soul going through one hell of a midlife crises. Here is part of Sarah’s story,

…I know

the villagers cannot abide me: my poverty,

begging,

the turbulence,

curses I admit

I have made upon their livestock.

[You make excuses for them!]

But I must, I am wrecked

since the loss of inheritance

rights, my downhill slide,

know the ruin upon me

makes my eyes look hollowed out,

more like seventy than thirty-eight.

Even my four-year-old

gives evidence against me. And my husband,

William, affirms if I am not already a witch,

I soon will be one…

Yes, her husband William must have been one understanding son-of –a bitch.

Another one of the accused does better in the husband department. Elizabeth Cary, the title character of a more uplifting poem in Case’s collection, puts it this way,

though he has never broken the law

before, Nathaniel is influential

enough—mariner and merchant—to arrange

my escape from the eight pounds

of weight, from what would otherwise

be my fate. New York, bless

Governor Fletcher, no friend

of Massachusetts (the two governors

almost slug it out on Martha’s vineyard),

provides asylum. My husband

loves me. The others conspire to get what

we have, divide it among themselves.

For prison keepers who live in penury, and

for those like my Nathaniel

rich enough to assure salvation, praise

the Lord for the glory of bribery.

The poet gets a number of things right. The victims of the Salem Witch Trials are not model human beings. They are earthy country folk with their own fears and shortcomings. Case’s portrayal of four year old Dorcas Good, in the poem of that same name, by her mother, Sarah Good, is riveting. Sarah explains,

…My Dorcas,

four years old, a fluttering

little bird whom I suckled

not so long ago, I admit

is a disordered child. They searched

her too, found a nipple on her finger

which could nourish a snake. If my salvation

after death depends

upon her goodness, I am ruined.

This child, her ways wicked and strange;

All is fury, all is pain.

Case in her poem Without Powerful friends portrays the case of Bridget Bishop, who, among other things, was accused of killing her husband with the use of a voodoo doll. After the first stanza Case interjects an account of Samuel Shattuck’s testimony against Bishop. Shattuck complains that in 1680 Bishop had bewitched his eldest child. This section works quite well. Later on in the same poem Case’s updated language and comments work less well. Bishop speaks,

…If I zoomed three hundred

years into the future, those about me

would still wish me hanged.

[It’s true, it happens every summer

now in front of tourists]

So there it is. I adore my big hats,

taverns, my old house—unlicensed

place of amber-colored cider and play—

my play at shuffleboard,

have no reason for shame

from that forbidden game.

[I’d bet you’d like a cigarette.]

The section of the book called Accusations includes the poem Cursed Children. Case gives voice to Betty Parris, the nine year old daughter of Reverend Samuel Parris. Here the poet’s interjected comments are biting and effective. The poem begins,

…Household chores are difficult

for me. [You’re only nine, Betty Parris!]

I am sickly, do not know

why I should be sickly. Unexplained

sickness sticks to mother.

[Take a closer look at your father.]

I do not know what you mean.

In the poem Master Witch Case recounts the execution of George Burroughs. Burroughs, a former minister himself, does the unthinkable. At the hanging he recites the Lord’s Prayer without a hitch. What to do? Enter the helpful Cotton Mather. The poet concluding the piece explains,

The crowd grows apprehensive.

Everyone knows what a witch must do

is make a mistake.

Then for those unsettled

in the crowd, Cotton Mather reminds them

the hanging must proceed;

George Burroughs has been convicted

by a skillful and temperate jury

(and perhaps he is a Baptist).

Sad, corroded village.

Such was the darkness of the day—

These perceptive and passionate poems by Susana Case are not only well worth the read but a good way to give sentient voice to historical injustice. And poets certainly have a plethora of that raw material.