In this, her first book, Martha Serpas succeeds brilliantly in fulfilling the calculations of the alchemists, those great hermetic artists of medieval Europe. Cote Blanche deliberately and beautifully weds the secular to the divine in poems which, steeped in the Cajun landscape of Serpas's Louisiana, prickle with exhilarating sensuality. Through its votive offerings to a God who is all too aware of the longings and aspirations of humankind, Cote Blanche becomes a testament to a new, personal belief that is simple yet breathtaking in its reach.