The Wake

Louise Erdrich, known for both her poetry and her fiction, calls herself a storyteller under all circumstances. Yet her poetry makes one believe she is clearly a poet at heart. Drawing on her Chippewa and German heritage, she has won many awards for countless novels, and her poetry manages to be timeless and yet specific enough to capture a different chord with readers of all backgrounds. Baptism of Desire was published in 1988, which may seem like ages ago in a time of infamously big hair, leggings and scrunchies, but it still makes a staunch impression on readers today.

“Baptism” in the title brings us to what this book of poetry is attempting to say. The poems focus very much on the Catholic religion and Erdrich’s feelings about her own faith and connection to God. The book is divided into five parts and flows more like a novel than anything else because the endings of poems tie succinctly into the titles of the following poems. There is a subtle linearity to all of her poetry, as if an invisible string was tying it all together.

The book begins with two quotes; one from an anonymous 14th century mystic and the other from the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, and as with her poetry, there is an intricate link with the repetitive mention of darkness in the quotes. The mystic’s quote ends with, “For if you are to feel him or to see him in this life, it must always be in this cloud, in this darkness.” Turgenev’s follows suit and ends with, “… but menacing face one tries in vain to make out in the gathering darkness.” To start Baptism of Desire—a book so filled with light—with this concept of darkness is an odd juxtaposition. Erdrich’s poetry never leaves you scrambling for the Kleenex box, but more so scratching your head in contemplation. The darkness the book begins with is instantly cleared by the way Erdrich ties her words together to reveal new connotations and ideas about the age-old question of religion.

“Fooling God,” the first poem of the series, begins with her search to escape the sight of God. Throughout the poem there is a slight sexual tension and concept of modernity as she mentions television twice, perhaps insinuating that God has simply become a figure to be seen and heard on the television for our culture. She writes: “I must fashion his children out of playdough, blue, pink, green. / I must pull them from between my legs / and set them before the television.” She makes another poignant example of religion today in “Christ’s Twin” when she writes, “the extra die / tumbled from his lips when he preached / but no one noticed. They were too busy/ clawing at the hem of his robe and planning / how to sell him to the world.” She makes many references to Catholic sacraments and saints in a more pious manner in her poetry, but with a title like Baptism of Desire she is attempting to show religion through a completely different focal point.

Erdrich changes focus towards part four when she notes that the poem “Hydra” and all the following were written between two and four in the morning due to the onset of insomnia caused by her pregnancy. Part four is less poetry and more of a story, but then again Erdrich does firmly call herself a storyteller. The next couple of poems focus on family and pregnancy, and less on the religious focus of parts one and two. However the cohesiveness remains succinct throughout.

Readers are left wanting more with the final lines of Baptism of Desire, “In the tremor of the long, receding footsteps / we awaken. The day is ordinary, / sunlight fans across the ceiling.” And to get more, readers can turn to more recent works like The Painted Drum or even visit Erdrich, who has a bookstore, BirchBark Books, in Minneapolis.