On Joy: Three Poetry Anthologies
With impermanence and “praise for the devil” all around, it’s a gift to rediscover joy, no matter how fleeting.
Reviews
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What It Means to Be Human: The Moon is Almost Full by Chana Bloch
These poems are equal to the task of navigating illness and death, while celebrating the life that remains the morning after.
Disease Cloaked in Ambition: Gorilla and the Bird by Zack McDermott
Gorilla and the Bird is an important resource for anyone impacted by the scope of bipolar disorder, as well as those who want to learn more about it.
Yes, and: Simulacra by Airea D. Matthews
Matthews is a poet of multivalent ways and hows, an artist at home in the riddle of refusal.
The Unreality Marches On: Ice by Anna Kavan
Kavan’s masterful and exacting prose never lets us forget that violence has to do with the human—specifically with the man—starting with the violence of language itself.
A Book of Absences: Jehanne Dubrow’s Dots & Dashes
[W]hat’s so startling about these poems is how Dubrow spends her poetic energies grappling with the classical treatments of the past to thrilling and unexpected effects.
Come Together through Bodies: Jennifer Colville’s Elegies for Uncanny Girls
The female body here is as palpable as image. As the images and objects transform, so does the female’s body.
A New Understanding of Experience: David Biespiel’s The Education of a Young Poet
This book will make you appreciate poetry more. And if you’re a poet, it will make you proud to be one.
Shifting Histories: Belladonna by Daša Drndić
The past may be riddled with holes, but it cannot be dispensed with as easily as possessions.
The Dangers of the Earth’s Extremes: Jessica Goodfellow’s Whiteout
The poems in Whiteout pull together an array of topics and well-developed craft, making it a complex book emotionally, thematically, and technically.
A Zombie Existence: Fleur Jaeggy’s I Am the Brother of XX
Unlike clothing, which can disguise the state of the soul, a person’s eyes reveal the truth.
Stitching America Back Together: A Long Late Pledge by Wendy Willis
It is late for our country. We must look back in dialogue with the founders, examine a patched-together country, an embattled flag, and consider how to stop floundering.