Richard Schiffman’s What the Dust Doesn’t Know, Reviewed by David E. Poston

Richard Schiffman What the Dust Doesn’t Know Salmon Poetry/Dufour Editions Reviewer: David E. Poston Richard Schiffman’s first full-length poetry collection, What the Dust Doesn’t Know, is dedicated to Mother Anasuya Devi of Jillellamudi and to “this sane and sacred Earth which sustains us all.” Author of biographies of the Jillellamudi Mother and Sri Ramakrishna, Schiffman […]

Mary Dezember’s Still Howling, Reviewed by Ann Wehrman

Mary Dezember Still Howling CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform Reviewer: Ann Wehrman It takes courage for a modern, intellectual, female poet to oppose current literary style and write serious poems that speak of the bright, glowing, soft topics: love, angels, and sacred sexuality—topics of “light,” hope, and virtue. One might ask: where are the angst, the […]

Amanda J. Bradley’s Queen Kong, Reviewed by Cindy Hochman

Amanda J. Bradley Queen Kong NYQ Books Reviewer: Cindy Hochman Between dolls and dalliance, I begin to realize my body can be a weapon, can be violated, can be impregnated, can make me strong or weak.  —“Fourteen” Even before your mind seizes on the heroic aspects of the comic-book cover of Mrs. Kong as a […]

Mischa Willett’s Phases, Reviewed by Lee Rossi

Mischa Willett Phases Cascade Books Reviewer: Lee Rossi The latest volume in the Poiema Poetry Series, which, as the series editor declares, “presents the work of gifted poets who take Christian faith seriously,” Mischa Willett’s Phases is less noteworthy for its declarations of religious belief than for the way it mimics poets for whom Christianity […]

John Elsberg’s Not Quite Ocean: Selected Poems, Reviewed by Richard Allen Taylor

John Elsberg Not Quite Ocean: Selected Poems of John Elsberg (Constance M. Elsberg, Editor) Paycock Press Reviewer: Richard Allen Taylor Not Quite Ocean celebrates the poetry of John Elsberg (1945-2012), a poet, editor, and historian who authored over a dozen poetry books and chapbooks and served as editor or associate editor of various literary magazines, […]