You would see she exists in defined space composed of small detail: apples, thread, car keys, what’s for dinner Wednesday. If she could move from thread and grocery lists to questions of destiny, love, death— but life interrupts in the opposite direction, insists upon the particular in the shape of her daughter wandering in wondering where her boots are, of the non-negotiable need to finish errands before the school bus arrives. So we are delivered to comedy. “Mrs. B. gave up trying to fathom the ways of fate and fortune and focused instead on the refrigerator’s innards, which had been…
Author: Mom Egg Review
Review by Cathy Warner – As an infant my oldest daughter loved being cuddled and entertained by aunts and grandparents, but she cried for days after their visits. She threw her first tantrum at 18 months and continued, almost daily, until she was in fourth grade, when I, at my wit’s end, sought professional help. My daughter had an auditory processing disorder and dyslexia. Knowing what was really going on in her brain helped me to stop being angry at her, to stop thinking I was a bad mother, and most importantly, to heal our relationship. My daughter is 26…
My name is winter hanging on the hem of spring A mandarin red My mother’s name is long road blues A scattered red My father’s name is twisted psalm A gospel / not red I come from a shouting / called people Remember me My name is burnt leaf curled dish water gossip A clownfish orange My mother’s name is halo stained glass A melted pottery glaze orange My father’s name is aperture lost breath A blue cry flamed orange I come from a distilled / leather-skinned people Remember me My name is scream-choking chicken A wildflower yarrow My mother’s…
Review by Ivy Rutledge Laura Grace Weldon’s poetry collection, Tending, tells the story of a life deeply felt. Read from beginning to end, the poems collectively form a larger poem detailing images of farm life, domesticity, family life, and beyond. Setting the tone for the collection, her opening poem, “Out of Body,” articulates a child’s sense of empathy, using carefully composed images of bodies, weight, and movement. She writes, “I worked to stay in the small body/my being was given,” then slips out of that embodiment, working her way through a series of expanding scenes. She sees “people hauling heavy…
Review by Libby Maxey – I love the concept of four chapbooks published in one volume, four poets brought together in a conversation that only the reader can hear. Apparently, this kind of “quartet” is a specialty of Toadlily Press, and Mend and Hone (2013) is the latest in the series. When I began to read it, I expected to find myself listening for the substance of the conversation, but the greatest pleasure turned out to be the sound of the different voices—and they are very different. These poets, all female, do share common concerns, concerns common to most of…
Review by Dallas Woodburn – It is safe to say I have never before read a book quite like Margo Berdeshevsky’s Beautiful Soon Enough, winner of the American Book Review/Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize. During the first few pages of the book, I found the analysis-heavy part of my brain kept interrupting, trying to pin down the book into a definable category: was this fiction? Poetry? A novel-in-stories? But this is a book that resists labels. It does not fit into tidy boxes. And, I grew to realize more and more as I continued reading, that is part of what…
Review by Nancy Vona – The best books can be enjoyed over and over again. Kyle Potvin’s chapbook Sound Travels on Water is one such book: a satisfying collection of poems with nuances of meaning that emerge on subsequent readings. Potvin writes about ordinary moments: cooking soup, rocking a three year old to sleep, eating burnt toast, a high school reunion. Even washing laundry! Her everyday subject matter becomes remarkable and illuminating with her expert grasp of poetic forms and the elements of poetry. She is a mother, and her poems capture ordinary scenes of motherhood with grace and tenderness. Consider…
Hester Jones – A Show of Hands Hester Jones is a British Artist based in London UK. Her work is an ongoing investigation into culturally constructed, gendered identities; she is interested in the performative and participatory qualities of photography. www.hesterjones.com
Get the Issue Lesley Dame The Answer Even if it were a beacon, you’d be terrified. I mean, come on, this sudden light flashes in the starless sky and you’re, what, happy? You know that doesn’t make sense. You know that nothing is free; day and night each have their own purpose. You are a moving statue. You have no choice. Now! says the light. Not yet, says the voice inside your cold heart. Lesley Dame is co-founder of and poetry and nonfiction editor for damselfly press. She is author of the chapbook, Letting Out…
Eti Wade on the cover image from her series, MIGRANT MOTHERS – ‘Migrant Mothers’ is a series of photographs of mothers with their children. The title is a homage to Dorothea Lange’s famous photograph ‘Migrant Mother’ which recorded a young mother, aged before her time, holding three young children close to her body, her face showing the hardship she suffers through caring for her children while struggling with extreme poverty. My mothers are migrants, they are economic migrants who have left their home countries to work in rich, Western economies. To be able to gain entry and work long hours…