Category Archives: reviews

myth, memory, and massacre

Paul Carlson and Tom Crum conclude Myth, Memory, and Massacre with the observation that “…in the larger story of Anglo-Indian conflict in Texas the so-called Battle of Pease River was not particularly significant. Indeed, its importance, such as it is, … Continue reading

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fifty poems

fifty glimpses sound as well as sight. listen to the blue of seven magpies, seven magpies, blue with age last night’s rain in daffodils bent, enclosed by gold-ringed eye fragments, gathered when they caught the ear of a poet’s eye … Continue reading

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delicate access

The author’s note with which Madeleine Marie Slavick introduces her 2004 collection delicate access is, more than most such notes, a taste of things to come. “A notice came from the post office,” she begins, “to please collect an oversize … Continue reading

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everybody has a pet

live inside out for sou vai keng, after reading everybody has a pet 1 still clouds stir every thinking thing thinking wind thinking nothing the heart of the matter the heart of every thinking thing pay no attention to that … Continue reading

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faith run

Faith Run begins with “a poem of one hundred tongues” that “realigns the saxophone / until two hundred eardrums respond, // the music building into a text that wants to spill / the wine out of the conches” (3). From … Continue reading

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china suite and other poems

Gillian Bickley is at her best when she lets the everyday surprises of multicultural, multilingual Hong Kong speak for themselves — as in the “prophet’s message” on a lamp-post “where usually the police affix notices / seeking witnesses of fatal … Continue reading

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contrapuntal

Contrapuntal is the work of a sophisticated, mature poet. Carol Hamilton, Poet Laureate of Oklahoma, 1995-1997, brings her years of lyrical experience and her keen eye for cultural history to the story of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Even those … Continue reading

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at the Book Cellar

Virtual Artists Collective at the Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, 29 June 2009. (I’ve broken the audio into individual tracks and edited out the introductions and other small talk — but preserved the order of the program. The … Continue reading

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the gita within walden

At the end of The Gita Within Walden, Paul Friedrich writes, “In the most general and abstract terms as well as many specifics of image and trope…, the Gita is indeed ‘within’ Walden; someone familiar with both texts can open … Continue reading

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dark card

In the title poem of Dark Card, we learn that the book’s subject is its speaker’s son, whose Asperger’s Syndrome has shaped their lives in such a way that these poems have arisen as its outermost edge. Asperger’s is part … Continue reading

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