The History of Permanence by Gary Fincke Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2011 Reviewed by Barrett Warner The Susquehanna is an old river. Kerouac called it “the mighty ghost of the East.” At 440 miles, it’s the longest river to drain into the Atlantic Ocean. That’s a lot of haunt, but author Gary Fincke doesn’t …
Salt Pier (Pitt Poetry Series) by Dore Kiesselbach University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012 ISBN: 978-0822962175 reviewed by Mike Walker Dore Kiesselbach brings forth in this slim volume a true, robust, and fully novel burst of poetry—an outpouring that appears like a new crop, with a lot of little things to find in the market-sized assortment …
by Susan Kelly-DeWitt 1. I recently read two books, published twenty years apart, and both are works of genius. My first question to myself: How did I miss the one published in 1992, by an author whose work I have loved since the beginning? Somehow I did miss it— and then, after buying it, even …
by John Samuel Tieman I sometimes think I wasted a lot of years looking for inspiration, when all I needed to do was simply open my eyes. mother and suckling boy at the bus stop on Pine she notes the dawn and wonders what the day will bring besides milk and sleep and light I …
In the Company of Spirits poems by Carmen Calatayud Winston-Salem, NC: Press 53. 2012 $12.95. reviewed by C.L. Bledsoe Calatayud is a DC poet, and like many in the DC scene, she understandably focuses on social issues, questions of involvement and public policy. This is the poetry of witness. She slips between potent scenes of …
The Imagined Field, poems by Sean Patrick Hill. Paper Kite Press, 2010. reviewed by C.L. Bledsoe Hill’s collection begins with “When You Hardly Knew Your Fingers,” a surreal portrait of a struggling spiritual life. “It’s an old story, need.” he begins (line 1). He continues with images of alienation and loneliness: “Wind in trees, gaunt …
Between Gods, poems by Donna Lewis Cowan. Cincinnati: Cherry Grove Collections, 2012 reviewed by C.L. Bledsoe Cowan’s debut collection begins with “Thaw,” a beautiful meditation on the changing of the seasons, played out through ice skaters: At the pond’s edge, the skaters steer from the etched-out hollows, speed toward the marrow mapped tight. We are …
Injecting Dreams Into Cows, poems by Jessy Randall. Pasadena: Red Hen Press, 2012. $17.95. ISBN: 1597092304. 104 pgs. reviewed by CL Bledsoe Randall’s collection begins with “Metaphors,” a clever, playful piece that bucks preconceptions, “A duck is like the moon/because a kid can point at both. A house/is like the sky: both hold things…” (lines …