Book and Chapbook Reviews: Comstock Review Poets
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Authors - G
David Garrison is author of a fine chapbook, Blue Oboe (Wyndham Hall Press,1984) with charming pen and ink illustrations by David Leach. Garrison's short poems are notable for breathtaking imagery set forth in delicate, precise language.
The Thought of a Hat (Invisible River, 2003) is the title of Erin Garstka's provocative chapbook. The poet sings with a fresh voice in courageous, celebratory poems that weave the concrete and mystical together in rich and tender metaphors.
Cheryl Gatling brings us a Springfed Chapbook, Stickley Wood (FootHills, 2004) filled with eighteen poems expressing the moving moments, both joyful and painful, of love and family life. These fine poems reflect a strong sense of place and the impact of societal and world events. See also http://www.gatling.us/cheryl/
Gynell Gavin: Intersections (Main Street Rag, 2005), the Editor's Choice Chapbook Series 2005 addition, comes from the pen of this writer and attorney as she tells of racial tensions and interracial couples, of her family and neighbors, and poignant courtroom dramas about people trying to make it in an often unjust society. These poems are immediate, direct in language, compelling. (added 1/06)
Reconciliation (Northwood Editions, 2003) and A Gentle Shaking (Junction Books, 2000) come from Canadian Adam Getty. I love Adam's poetry, both for what it says and the wonderful way he says it, with clarity and wonder, direct yet shaded, quiet and contemplative, with last lines that grab your throat. Poet Patrick Lane says "I can taste Getty's blood in every line, These are poems to remind us all of what it is to be alive in this most human of all worlds."
Becky Gould Gibson's Need-Fire (Bright Hill, 2007) revolves around the 7th Century founding of the abbey at Whitby by its powerful yet silent abbess Hild. Bold, visionary poetry and meticulous research yield this work of historical imagination, these magical, sometimes rough Anglo-Saxon verses, this colorful and entertaining portrait of 7th Century life on the wild Northumbrian coast. (new 7/07) Also just out, the X.J. Kennedy Prize-winning Aphrodite's Daughter (Texas Review Press, 2007), which mixes both sassy and serious persona poems of myth with memory of women's experiences in all their complexity. The language is lush and resonant, fully experienced. (Revised 11/07).
Teresa Gilman's newest chapbook wears the intriguing title Roses in the Sand, Your Hand (FootHills Publishing, 2006) and spills over with wonderful poems of the senses. Colors, foods, plants and flowers, a yellow shirt, star in these elegies as hope and loss do battle. Previous chapbooks include Grass Stained and Wet to the Waist SpringFed Series, FootHills 2003), which has sold out, and Fumbling for the Flesh of Song (FootHills 2003), both filled with the poet's signature sensuous imagery, evocative language, and ability to anchor her readers in the moment. Truly delightful - and her newest is one of the best of '07! (Updated 2/07)
Elton Glaser is a stellar lyric poet, from his striking second collection, Tropical Depressions, which won the Iowa Prize in 1988, through Color Photographs of the Ruins (Pitt, 1992), and Winter Amnesties (Northern Illinois, 2000) to Pelican Tracks (Northern Illinois, 2003). Gritty and reverent, profound and comic, this Louisiana poet weaves classic poems that achieve stateliness without being the least bit stuffy, in his trademark mixing of high and low culture.
The talented Victoria Givotovsky brings us Elegies and Other Love Songs, one of four thirteen-page chapbooks that comprise The Fifth Voice (Toadlily Press,2006). These wonderful poems speak of all the permutations of love but dwell most on love for the mother. They also speak eloquently of aging and invoke the specter of impending loss. Surrealism makes her depictions of inner and outer landscape all the more poignant. This chapbooks is set among three other good ones (Pamela Hart, Allen Strous, Noah Kucij), but now I'd like to see a full volume from Givotovsky! (Added 1-07)
When Comets Rained (Custom Words, 2004) comes from the pen of Columbian-born poet Iris Gomez. The contrast of light and dark resonates through this collection of poems about family, location and the vagaries of time. Narrative yields to a floating lyric in these engaging poems. (added 9/06)
When The Grateful Dead Came To Saint Louis (Folly Cove, 997), by Charlotte Gordon, is another winner. The poet weaves wonderful stories in her precise and exciting narrative poems. The title poem for this chapbook won Second Place in The Comstock Review's yearly contest the year it was entered.
Taylor Graham brings us Casualties: Search-and-Rescue Poems (Salt City Review, 1995), An Hour in the Cougar's Grace (Pudding House, 2000), This Morning According to Dog (Hot Pepper Press, 2001), and Living with Myth (Rattlesnake, Press, 2004), as well as her Greatest Hits (Pudding House 2002).. These generous chapbooks are alive with the poet's ability to make the common idiom sing in her acute observations of nature and humanity. Deceptively natural, casual, yet lyrical, her poems about animals are especially wonderful. And she shows a rare gift for titles. http://somersetsunset.net/Poetry.htm
On Second Thought (Fithian Press, 1992) is nonagenarian Daniel Green's second full collection of poems, a remarkable feat for someone who wrote his first poem at 82. These narratives speak of an alert and thoughtful mind attuned to the vagaries and delights of the world around him. The book is illustrated by wife Leona, with whom he explores the globe.
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