Poems of solace during hard times - courtesy of The Atlantic

Here are some Poems of solace during hard times - courtesy of The Atlantic.

Review: To Cleave: Poems

To Cleave: Poems by Barbara Rockman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Barbara Rockman's "To Cleave" is an amazingly beautiful, poignant, powerful book. Here we find what we seldom do in a collection-a careful eye that truly sees both the natural world and the very human; a craft that seeks just the right word, not just for sense but for sound and thus a music so often missing in contemporary poetry, rich in assonance, alliteration, quiet and subtle half-rhymes, never overbearing, always true.

Sections seem devoted to a backpacking trip, her childhood, raising her daughters, natural disasters like Fukushima, married life, love, loss, and love again. The emotion is not wrought with false notes or strained surrealism. The images are carefully chose, metaphor and symbolic truths living below their quiet surface. The domestic life blends with the natural world. A certain knowledge of geology and biology adds fullness. There are poems where she sews herself into oneness with that natural world. The bittersweet taste of death and loss add savor.

This is the finest collection of poetry by a contemporary writer that I have read in too long  a time. If you love reading poetry, this is a meal and a dessert you will relish. If you are poet, as am I, you will be filled with that positive envy--the one that drives you back to trying to sing with words the way Rockman does in these poems. To be read and reread, I am certain.


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Review: Walking the Sunken Boards

Walking the Sunken Boards by Linda Blaskey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is actually a collection by four women: Linda Blaskey, Gail Braune Comorat, Wendy Elizabeth Ingersoll and Jane C. Miller. Here are poems by four individual women, all with singular voices, but a harmony in beautiful chorus made from the disharmonies of living. Here are poems that are by turns bitter, hopeful, loving, strong--poems that reveal their individual journeys as if true to a larger mythic simplicity.

I could not want to nor will not single one of these women out for special praise. The poems are of a consistent high quality. They each make wonderful use of imagery from nature, rural life, family history. Husbands, fathers, children, friendships--that my rend or mend or both. You read and hear their truths.

I look forward to rereading the collection and hearing their voices over again.

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Review: Irregular Images

Irregular Images by Edward Ahern
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Edward Ahern's collection of poems, "Irregular Images," bears reading, but the quality is indeed irregular. His "At the Cottage" is a fine example of a sestina and "The Shoal" has a simple eloquence. You do have to read through others that are less engaging or not up to the same quality of craftwork.

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iō Literary Journal will publish my poem "Unknown Alternate" online in an upcoming issue

iō Literary Journal will publish my poem "Unknown Alternate" online in an upcoming issue. My thanks for this and for their having previously published 3 other of my poems.

Jane Hirshfield reads "Today, Another Universe" by brainpicker | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Jane Hirshfield reads "Today, Another Universe" by brainpicker | Free Listening on SoundCloud

https://soundcloud.com/brainpicker/jane-hirshfield-today-another-universe

Hirshfield is one of my favorite poets writing today.

My poem"Half-life" has been published by Backchannels and can viewed online

My poem"Half-life" has been published by Backchannels and can viewed online HERE. My thanks to the editors.

This is the introductory poem in an unpublished collection, Shards.

Celebrate World Poetry Day - United Nations

Write a poem.

Read a poem

"Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. On World Poetry Day, reflect on the power of language and the full development of your creative abilities."
— Read on www.un.org/en/observances/world-poetry-day

If you will review my new poetry collection, Dark Fathers, on Amazon and/or Goodreads, I will send you a free eBook copy.

If you will review my new poetry collection, Dark Fathers, on Amazon and/or Goodreads, I will send you a free eBook copy.

Email me at davidanthonysam@gmail.com if you want to participate. This offer is good through the month of March 2020.

Review: Early Hour - A fine a small collection to be savored.

Early Hour by Michael McGriff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In "Early Hours," Michael McGriff weaves his wife into the world of nature around her, using imagery that in itself would not be erotic to describe the emotional and physical love he has for her. These are not simple poems, though the language is accessible and real. Death lingers at the center as well as at the edges, but the knowledge of mortality makes his love grater and not bitter.

So many poets today strain to juxtapose images in an attempt at some kind of surrealism--and most often fail. McGriff's imagery seems right even as it causes you to gasp at what has been gathered together in a sentence or a phrase:

the outline of your face
is sky-written in the black loam
of thunderheads.

Another example:

because the river's teeth
still gnash
against [the horse's] flank
and its eyes
stil have the luster
of black china
glowing black-bright
in the glass hutch of memory

The imagery is both from nature and domestic life, putting himself, his wife, their relationship and their daily living deep into the natural world--as it should be.

A fine a small collection to be savored.

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The Red Earth Review has accepted my poem, "Nothing Like," for their forthcoming issue, Vol 7.

The Red Earth Review has accepted my poem, "Nothing Like," for their forthcoming issue, Vol 7. This is the second poem of mine accepted for that issue and the sixth they have published in all issues. I am grateful to the editors.