Trace Poems by Eric Pankey Milkweed Editions, 2013 $16.00 Pankey explores the idea of traces in several ways throughout this collection. One version is as traces of religious faith or traces of evidence supporting that faith. Another is traces of memory, specifically memories of Pankey’s deceased father. And finally, there are traces of meaning …
Blowout, poems by Denise Duhamel. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press Pitt Poetry Series, 2012. $15.95. Reviewed by CL Bledsoe Duhamel charts the rise and fall and aftermath of a relationship in these poems, from the first real sparks to the warning signs to the realization it’s over, the divorce, and the settling of ashes. Her …
A Mountain City of Toad Splendor, poems and prose by Megan McShea. Baltimore: Publishing Genius Press, 2012. Reviewed by C.L. Bedsoe When I read collections like this, I’m frequently reminded of the excellent poem (and song) “It’s Saturday” by John S. Hall which contains one of my favorite lines: “Sense cannot be made. It must …
reviewed by CL Bledsoe Interstitial by Sean Patrick Hill Buffalo, NY: BlazeVox Books, 2011. BlazeVox poetry collections tend to have three things in common: physically, they tend to be oversized (not necessarily thick, but wide or tall) and very attractive; stylistically, they tend to be experimental (whatever that means – so basically, they don’t usually …
reviewed by CL Bledsoe The Switching/Yard, poems by Jan Beatty. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013. Anyone who’s ever ridden on a train has found himself staring out the window and wondering at what he saw. The landscape, the towns we pass, the people; all evoke stories. In her most recent collection, Beatty has written …
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 …