Jessica
Since we last checked in, there have been two lovely posts about Blameless Mouth from two poets I admire deeply. What was neat about these posts (yeah, I said neat) was that they addressed two very different aspects of Blameless Mouth, that haven’t been addressed in other reviews thus far.
The first was from Carolee Sherwood. I’ve known Carolee from the good, old Poetry Thursday days. I’ve always admired her writing, as well as the seemingly effortless way that she blends her art, her writing, work and motherhood together. She is disciplined with her practice and manages to produce excellent poems (and co-manage Big Tent Poetry with Deb Scott) with what little time she likely has.
Carolee wrote here about Blameless Mouth and addressed, in part, the structure of the book. I spent a lot of time structuring my book, as it was a difficult manuscript to wrangle. I was honored to have Carolee address that part of the work.
The second review came just yesterday, from Texas poet James Brush. I met James more recently, through the Read Write Poem site and then again through my ill-fated attempt at writing small stones in January. James’ poetry, especially his micropoetry at his microblog A Gnarled Oak, is gorgeous and almost photographic in its clarity and detail.
James addressed a secondary theme in the book, that of consumerism, in his review. When I was wrestling with the early forms of this book, I knew that hunger and consumerism were linked, but I didn’t know how and I didn’t know if I could link them successfully. James’ review makes me so glad that I left the poems in, since he explores that link so well.
I am very grateful to both of these fine poets for their reviews. I hope that you will go by their blogs and check them out!
