Beliefs and Blasphemies: A Collection of Poems

This is the second book of poems by the youthful 85 year old Virginia Adair. She has more vitality and imagination and more sensuality than poets 1/10th her age. In this book she takes on the cosmic issues of life and death and God, sometimes somberly, and sometimes with humor. Adair seems dissatisfied with God, or more to the point, his representatives on Earth. For example, in "Judas" she writes:"The devil said, 'When I was tempting Jesus,I told him I could make him rich as Croesus.But he misjudged my power, the pious scoffer.His televangelists took up my offer."Besides writing poems about sinful men who long to find geishas in heaven, the reason why goddesses appeared before God, and why God allowed innocents to burned as heretics, there are also great moments of serious beauty such as "The Playground of the Dead" where dead spirits of children gather and "So Long", which addresses that age-old theme of mutability. In the end, this collection is the questioning of God as to why things are the way they are and a satiric poke at us humans who wrongfully try to interpret the doings of a being higher than us in all ways. Adair is more successful in her comedic moments than her profound ones. Highly recommended. Adair's first collection was Ants on the Melon. Her third book is Living on Fire.

Mrs. Adair has produced a charming and illuminating volume of poems with a spiritual theme. Most are very personal and deeply evocative, and her voice is clearly one of strong and fulfilling belief in Christ. The brevity of the volume makes it a welcome read, again and again.