What We Eventually Forget: Bernadette Mayer’s Memory
I surprised myself by reading Memory in an afternoon.
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Rites of Passage: Steven Toussaint’s Lay Studies
We are liturgical animals, Toussaint’s poems suggest, designed to satisfy some ultimate desire with worship.
A Poetic Smorgasbord: A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
Each sentence is calculated; each word explodes.
A Fantastic Communion: Renaissance Normcore by Adèle Barclay
Salt—the speaker’s only remains, after she dives into the ocean and sets herself free of the past.
Trauma as Inheritance: Adam P. Frankel’s The Survivors
The survivor is left to ponder whom he has become.
Observations of an Inquisitive Mind: Fruit by Bruce Snider
These are not poems of self-pity. Far from it.
Quiet, Radical Defiance: The Equivalents by Maggie Doherty
Education, work, study: these were not simply a means to an end.
Straining Toward “Memory Care”: Victoria Chang’s Obit
For Chang, figurative language proves unsatisfactory when compared to the depth of her grief.
An Irony Full of Grace: John L’Heureux’s The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast
The horror of violence is not assuaged by announcing it quickly.
Mothers and Daughters: Girl by Veronica Golos
Bodies become something to escape from or leave behind.
Lingering on Darkness: Sleepovers by Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
When Ashleigh Bryant Phillips lets loose, she can shock.
Let Our Rage Become a Storm: Kelly Grace Thomas’s Boat Burned
In this collection, women are “vesseled,” carrying the burdens of our culture.