Review by Christine Stewart-Nuñez The title drew me to Gloved Against Blood. I admired its cacophony, how my mouth untangled the phrase; I admired its assonance, how the sounds “uh, uh” became onomatopoetic, suggesting pain. It prompted me to peel…
Browsing: Book Reviews
Review by Judith Skillman Carol Smallwood’s new collection, Prisms Particles, and Refractions, is at once playful and serious. Her work in this volume ranges from extremely concise poems such as “On Days of Slow Rain” where the speaker becomes “a…
Review by Ros Howell “The word for house and tomb / is the same, pronounced per” says the narrator in the entirety of the poem “Hieroglyphs, Reread” (63). In this haunting collection of poems, the first of former journalist…
Review by Barbara Ellen Sorensen In The Short List of Certainties, Lois Roma-Deeley compels the reader to open her eyes and witness the beauty of life. Life is after all the only sacred thing we have and to miss…
Review by Tessara Dudley As part of a year-long series of chapbooks about humankind’s relationship to animals, poet Nicelle Davis and illustrator Cheryl Gross have collaborated on this entry, which explores the precarious place of elephants in the world…
Review by Margie Shaheed While reading Mandatory Evacuation Zone I was drawn in by the lush journey that spans generations to familiar and unfamiliar places. I take liberty and use the word places here figuratively as well as literally…
Review by Judy Swann Andrea Potos is obsessed with John Keats, as she says in “Verse Virtual.” So it feels natural to see her cite from his letters in “Morning of my 56th Birthday,” the opening poem of her…
Review by Jennifer Martelli In her poem “Number Four,” Heather Sullivan writes I would hang there, pinioning wildly, clawing for ledge or outstretched root, something to help gain purchase . . . . Coming home from work your shadow joins…
Review by Barbara Ellen Sorensen The final poem in Margaret Rozga’s book of poems Pestiferous Questions titled “Why Jessie?” warns, “History is a timeline / Those who do not know history / leave it lying underfoot / We trip on…
Review by Sarah W. Bartlett It becomes quickly apparent that Tina Kelley is quite at home as parent, journalist, and poet. Her themes are as familiar as family, thorny as politics, clever as language, and as varied as the…