Gail Wronsky’s Imperfect Pastorals, Reviewed by Cindy Hochman
Gail Wronsky Imperfect Pastorals What Books Press Reviewer: Cindy Hochman What did you think it would be this life all dining on violets and intravenous moonbeams? —“Selectively, using your fingernails” The good news is that although Gail Wronsky’s Imperfect Pastorals is heavily steeped in the major works of Roman poet Virgil, you need not be […]
Rachel Dacus’s Arabesque, Reviewed by Maria Rouphail
Rachel Dacus Arabesque FutureCycle Press Reviewer: Maria Rouphail Rachel Dacus’s Arabesque brings to mind the old maxim, ut pictura poesis (“as in painting, so in poetry”). Formulated by Horace as something of a touchstone for evaluating the arts, the analogy was invoked rather unsystematically in later Western art and poetry. It also came to suggest […]
Jodie Hollander’s My Dark Horses, Reviewed by Erica Goss
Jodie Hollander My Dark Horses Liverpool University Press Reviewer: Erica Goss A torrent of shocking and revelatory poetry simmers between the covers of My Dark Horses, pulling the reader in with the very first poem, “Splitting and Fucking”: “My mother, / poor woman / somehow she was / always the victim / of splitting and […]
Daryl Sznyter’s Synonyms for (OTHER) Bodies, Reviewed by Ann Wehrman
Daryl Sznyter Synonyms for (OTHER) Bodies NYQ Books Reviewer: Ann Wehrman Peppering her poems with ampersands and i in the lower case, sans capitalization at sentences’ starts, Daryl Sznyter shoulders her way into the reader’s mind like a tough girl in a leather jacket: lipstick deep red, purple, or black; nails chipped; attitude a screwdriver […]
Karen Paul Holmes’ No Such Thing as Distance, Reviewed by David E. Poston
Karen Paul Holmes No Such Thing as Distance Terrapin Books Reviewer: David E. Poston Reading No Such Thing as Distance, the new collection from Karen Paul Holmes, I was reminded of hearing poet Cecily Parks talk about how poems need to be generous. No Such Thing as Distance offers readers a rich family history, including […]
