The poems of C. Mikal Oness fade in as if they have been speaking all along in the background in a frequency or volume lost to the human ear until their patience runs out and they enter, reverberating, sleek and insistent. With incantatory lines that are addressed more to the self than to an outward entity, Oness calls to mind Stevens’ idea of the ultimate good—to believe in fictions while knowing they are fictions, to find real bliss only in what is infinitely deferred. There is a tension between what we settle for and what we try to squeeze out of fortune; whether we “keep moving for air” or “chant and kick powder,” the results are all we have, and we do not know enough about certainty to deem them fate or divination. This is a book that searches for that certainty through reversal, and the practice of Water Becomes Bone is to pan for its gospel by yielding to contrast, sifting the bright stones in the mix.
"At times dreamlike, at times sharply rendered, as lapidarian as precious gems, these haunting poems by C. Mikal Oness resound with deft subtleties, fine wit, and striking imagery. In them, Oness confronts our collective desires and fears, our human quandaries, as he delves into the essence of both mundane and cosmic mysteries. Along the way , he explores longing, impermanence, the fragility of our human comforts, the elusiveness of art, and the transmutations that occur between nature and being, death and transcendence. Oness's poems echo the succinct and tantalizing conundrums of Anglo-Saxon riddles, the soul's yearning of Rumi, and the word-playing delight of Gertrude Stein. These poems are small treasures-rich in nuance and song, emotionally complex, resonant and lasting." -- Maurya Simon
"The spare, elegant poems in Water Becomes Bone confront with unusual clarity the joys and the anguish of living with others. The contradictions of this considered life-a son's affections and a son's rage, the bones moving gracefully under a child's skin and the bones of another child resting under the earth-are considered with honesty and with a wrenching beauty. These contradictions are sometimes resolved, sometimes not, but each is confronted with wonder, reverence and awe. Oness is a fisherman, and there are poems in this collection that will have anglers pulling on their waders. This book is like a clear pool you can cast into again and again; every poem is a keeper." -- Gary Young
Overwhelmed by the growing AIDS crisis and the pressures of medical residency, Elena Tristani abandons an outwardly successful life and takes a job writing grants for The Spirit Gate, a holistic clinic that treats recovering drug addicts with acupuncture. Fascinated by the clinic’s founder, who treats Georgetown’s elite and drug detox patients with the same imperturbability, Elena reconsiders her own views on medicine and health. As Elena comes to know the world of the clinic, she is seduced by an ancient Chinese medical text, The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, and begins to see a different relationship between Eastern and Western medicine as well as a new path for herself.
“Twelve Rivers of the Body is an engrossing, provocative portrait of one woman’s odyssey to find meaningful work and her place in the world. Elizabeth Oness’s graceful style is at once precise and luxuriant as she follows Elena from her disillusionment with allopathic medicine into the realm of acupuncture and Taoist philosophy… Twelve Rivers of the Body is an examination of contemporary health problems, a meditation on urban community, and a moving spiritual journey.”
—Valerie Miner, author of After Eden and The Low Road
Winner of the 2007 Gival Press Novel Award "Twelve Rivers of the Body lyrically evokes downtown Washington, DC in the 1980s, before the real estate boom, before gentrification, as the city limped from one crisis to another-crack addiction, AIDS, a crumbling infrastructure. This beautifully evoked novel traces Elena's imperfect struggle, like her adopted city's, to find wholeness and healing."-Kim Roberts, author of The Kimnama
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