book reviews
Reviews of the best poetry books, collections and anthologies; discover poems and up-and-coming poets across all cultures, genres and themes.
Love and Mourning
An endless echo of weary, despondent sighs is what reverberates in this 2011 poetry book, written by Richard Atwood (and what it contains almost exclusively). Atwood's emotional poems throughout Death and Morning are romantic, erotic, and melancholic. The text does not stray very far from that atmosphere of passionate, yet unlucky love. For all intents and purposes, the first lines of the opening stanza in the piece "Love's Goodbye" serves as a rather succinct summary of the collection. Through his softly breathing verse, Atwood will interlock his fingers with those of his readers, and lead them from "...sorrow, to love, to sorrow. / A thousand roads, and each / with a few candles."
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
Optimism and Happiness Abound
Virginia Martin's collection Love Without Borders (published in 2017) is the third volume in a six part series. Readers will immediately discover that Martin's poetry is full of encouragement, optimism, and sweetness, served with a heavy Christian influence. Though these pieces do toe the line of falling (and actually do cross over a few times) into the realm of mawkish or sentimental work, their unabashed zest for life is undeniably cute.
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
Menny Offers Poetic Commentary on Social Issues
The cover of Melissa Menny's 2018 debut poetic collection, Mask Shavings, is rather deceptive. Bright neon butterflies seem to flutter invitingly at readers as they float off into a white abyss. The cover image implies that the text within will offer up soothing, light poetry; the kind that would ease the minds of those who read it. But that is not the case. Menny's poetry does not aim to imbue an effervescent sense of calm, but rather focuses its attention on such sobering subjects as mental illness, domestic abuse, and social anxiety. While Menny's poems could benefit from a more creative manipulation of language, she does use her poetic voice to bring awareness to the aforementioned (and very important) issues.
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
A Universe Within Verse
Stephen Page's 2016 poetic collection, A Ranch Bordering the Salty River, which was published by Finishing Line Press, is a verse novel really. His ballad like descriptions take place in South America, in Argentina to be exact, and convey the dreamlike stories of his characters, rancher Jonathan, and his wife Teresa. Page's poetic style is compact, but detailed. Through his well executed stanzas, his readers are invited to explore Jonathan's hard edged, working world.
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
A Sharp, Young New Voice in Poetry
Lamar Neal's We All Need Therapy, published in 2019, is a passionate collection dripping with sarcasm, rage and an immense sadness. It is also intensely ambitious at 174 pages long. There are so many calculated and intense pieces which are perfect in their delivery, but at the same time there are also so many in which the poet seems to be struggling to determine the perfect key for his voice.
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
Blueberry Fresh Poetry
Poetry is not confined to the house in this collection. It through streams and frolics among blueberry bushes. The intrinsic beauty and mysticism found in nature swells out from the cover of this poetry collection created by Elaine Reardon.
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
Willy Wonka has Nothing on Anne-Adele Wight
Opera houses may never be looked at in the same again. Anne-Adele Wight's Opera House Arterial, published in 2013 by BlazeVOX [books], is a work that will never be confused with anything else. The entire collection defies any strict labels of what poetry must be or act like.
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
Poetry in Pianissimo
Bill Cushing's Notes and Letters is an endearing little chapbook, and was published in 2016. Its contents range from observations of nature and odes to diners, to waxing on religious faith. The origin story of the entire collection, is perhaps, the most fascinating aspect of the work. Bill Cushing, the poet in question, knew Chuck Corbisiero when they were young, and lived in the same neighborhood in New York. Cushing was in a band, which would practice in Corbisiero's garage, though Corbisiero was not in this band at the time. But then they grew up, moved away. As luck would have it, these two men were able to reconnect many years later in Los Angeles.
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
A Child of Two Families Reveals Herself Through Poetry
Carol Anderheggen draws her the readers of her work inside her poetic world,"...this space called home...," where "there are no safe harbors / only life rafts / here and there..." In her 2017 poetry collection Born-child, published by Finishing Line Press, Anderheggen explores the depths of internal consternation that can be found in a child of adoption. In this particular work, "home" is not depicted in its traditional sense as comforting or warm. The feelings of comfort and happiness are instead found emanating from the natural world, "in the marsh," "...the child rises, / touches the earth goodbye..." and is able to find a bliss which lets her "...believe for an instant / that there were not / wolves at my doorstep..."
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
An Anti-Fairytale Book of Poetry
Christine Stoddard's poetry collection 'Water for the Cactus Woman', published through Spuyten Duyvil Publishing in 2018, weaves an almost anti-fairy tale onto the page. The speaker, a biracial character yearning for her mother's love and reaching out for some kind of connection with her dead grandmother, reveals that a massive change in location cannot transform what is bitter, bittersweet—frustrated and frustrating—into anything other than what it is. It is as the speaker says, "A grave is a grave is a grave / unless that grave belongs / to someone you loved."
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
Pause for a Poet: Anne-Adele Wight
[This interview was conducted by Laura DiNovis Berry (LDB) by phone in the summer of 2018.] The phone rings and immediately there is a cheery voice on the other line greeting me enthusiastically. I am speaking with Anne-Adele Wight (AW), a woman as vivacious, energetic, and unique as her poetry. I had been eager to speak with her after discussing her poetry collection, The Age of Greenhouses, with my compatriots at a meeting of the Kennett Library Poetry Discussion Club.
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
Walk from Brook Avenue into History
New York City may have only been the fifth girl in Sex and the City, but W. R. Rodriquez honors the entire state of New York by raising it up to play the role of the cosmos in From the Banks of Brook Avenue. Rodriquez's 2015 poetry collection delivers a seething critique of the United States of America's torrid past and a myriad of hypocrisies while struggling with the fact that no entity is an entirely flat character. All things are multifaceted, multidimensional in both their evil and good doings. Nothing is pure, "...the world is too crooked / for that;" everything is tainted and yet everything is beautiful. The complexity of the beings present in his work creates both heroes and antagonists.
By Laura DiNovis Berry7 years ago in Poets
