The Strings Are Lightning And Hold You In, is a poetry collection that transcends time and history, weaving stories of tradition with the unfolding events of the present, connecting the wild with the domestic, and masterfully interlocking the spiritual with the tangible. In this collection, words become a conduit for much more than a story and yet are almost too little to contain its incandescent quality.
Category: Poetry Reviews
A review of Identified Flying Objects by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs
While they can be termed as confessional, there’re no calculated calls for pity or sympathy in them, (unlike quite a few contemporary poems). Rather, most poems look at the broader socio-historic picture and compute personal reflections with a sense of objectivity where possible.
A review of In Silver Majesty by Donna Faulkner
Skeletons, dusty books and stale bodies exist seamlessly alongside a newborn swimming in safe waters, and the bending of dandelions that don’t break. All imprinted firmly in Faulkner’s words, they peel back the cover on her own aches and elations about this experience of being human.
A review of The Natural World Somersaults by Shaine Melrose
Melrose has a strong and distinct voice which stands out, with a language that is fresh, with a unique perspective. Her poems often carry multiple layers of meaning. On the surface the poems recount childhood memories and family stories, but deep reading reveals themes of identity, gender issues, sexual politics, and existential questions.
A review of Walking the Boundary by Damen O’Brien
A majority of the poems in Walking the Boundary are award winners, and if you follow these awards, as I do, the poems will be familiar. As the title suggests, these are poems about liminal spaces and edges between worlds, timeframes, states of being, genres, genders, parent and child, and between the human and any number of places, creatures, emotions, or landscapes.
Time-Traveling Poet: A Review of American Massif by Nicholas Regiacorte
At a time when the focus on identities has become so crucial, when advocacy and education on the state of the world are so vital, Regiacorte’s work is more consequential than ever. Both viscerally human and uncannily inhuman, American Massif is an illuminating and clever collection of poetry for the ages.
A review of Rural Ecologies by Michael J. Leach
Leach’s Haiku varies from three lines to two and sometimes four lines. Like all good haikus the insight and the images come from observations of the natural world. In most of this collection the haiku present an observation followed by a contrast or interpretation of the observation.
A Review of Anemone Morning and other poems by Gopal Lahiri
The book is a dreamer’s search for peace and silence in the mind’s quest for spiritual enlightenment. Lahiri explores transcendence while being compassionate and appreciative of his natural surroundings and daily responsibilities. Silence loses its blind opacity as he delves into its depths and finds a summing up of an entire life.
A review of Invisible Wasp by Stephanie Powell
There is a surprise in every poem in Invisible Wasp. The poems could be idealistic or pragmatic, or about desires or disappointments, or personal or about the natural world or even imaginary events, but they are always a delight to read.
A review of The Under Hum by Simone Muench & Jackie K. White
The poems found within this volume are seamlessly assembled, so much so that the reader cannot detect where Muench and White’s writing both begins and ends. Their style is intermeshed one unto the other, as well as with the inclusion of other writers’ borrowed lines. The outside writers’ lines are italicized for attribution sake, but their syntax and style mirror Muench and White’s dual voices.