Virgil Translated by David Ferry University of Chicago Press ($35) by Anshuman Mody In a poem in his 2012 collection Bewilderment, David Ferry works with a letter in which Goethe says, “To live / Long is to outlive many.” Ferry’s poem is about “The death that lives in the intention of things / To have […]
Eleni Sikelianos Coffee House Press ($18) by Linda Lown-Klein In this, her seventh collection of poems in an oeuvre that includes a long eco-poem, two hybrid essays/memoirs, and six other books of poetry, Eleni Sikelianos writes whimsically about how to "make ourselves happy" while sounding a strong cautionary note about the risks to the biosphere […]
Jacqueline Waters Ugly Duckling Presse ($15) by Greg Bem A mesmerizing book of poetry, Jacqueline Waters’s Commodore often reads like a journal, a daybook, a record of activity. It is a demonstration of the difficulties of consistency in a world where we take balance and stability in our daily lives for granted. Commodore is also […]
Martín Barea Mattos Translated by Mark Statman Diálogos Books ($20) by Eileen Murphy behind the glass window I am stopped and I shake a phantom of flesh in fear transfixed in ecstatic whisper by consecrated chains of flowers to the peace of spring It is the reader who will stand “transfixed / in ecstatic whisper” […]
Jenny Molberg Tupelo Press ($16.95) by George Longenecker In her first book, Marvels of the Invisible, Jenny Molberg looks through a scientific lens in poems that are both memoirs and detailed descriptions of life forces. Her verse is lush with imagery, and in both her lyric and narrative poetry shows imagination and mastery of craft. […]
Jeffrey Schultz Ecco ($15.99) by J.G. McClure The back cover of Jeffrey Schultz’s Civil Twilight, selected for the National Poetry Series by David St. John, explains that Civil twilight occurs just before dawn and just after dusk, when there is still light enough to distinguish the shapes and contours of objects but not the richness […]