The Needle by Jennifer Grotz (Description provided by Netgalley) ~Following her debut collection, Cusp, chosen by Yusef Komunyakaa to win the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bakeless Prize, the composed, observed quality of Jennifer Grotz's
The Needle will remind readers of the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop and Ellen Bryant Voigt. Whether she is describing a town square in Kraków, where many of these poems are set, the ponies of Ocracoke Island, a boy playing a violin, or clouds, she finds the lyrical details that release an atmosphere of heightened, transcendent attention in which the things of the world become the World, what Zbigniew Herbert called "royal silence."
| Title: |  | The Needle |
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| Publisher: | | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
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| Imprint: | | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
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| Pub Date: | | 03/24/2011 |
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| ISBN: | | 9780547444123 |
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Seedlip and Sweet Apple by Arra Lynn Ross (Description provided by Netgalley) ~Seamlessly bridging the material and spiritual world,
Seedlip and Sweet Apple takes the reader into the mind of a true visionary, Mother Ann Lee, the founder of the Shaker religion in colonial America, in poems inspired by extensive historical research and manifested in astonishingly original verse. Merging the mythical with the mystical with the real, Arra Lynn Ross’s poems are linked thematically through the voice and story of the woman who was believed by her followers to be Christ incarnate in the female form. Ann Lee taught a spiritual path of harmony and joy, which included ecstatic dance and song, simplicity, communal living, and celibacy. Written in an impressive cornucopia of forms—including iambic quatrains, free verse, and prose poems—
Seedlip and Sweet Apple honors a complex figure startlingly relevant to contemporary life, pointing to a revolutionary way to work at living—and to live in working—that promises simplicity, peace, and joy.
| Title: | | Seedlip and Sweet Apple |
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| SubTitle: | | Poems |
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| Publisher: | | Milkweed Editions |
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| Imprint: | | Milkweed Editions |
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| Pub Date: | | 04/01/2010 |
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| ISBN: | | 9781571314345 |
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The Cure is a Forest by Desi Di Nardo (Description provided by Netgalley) ~An element of animism permeates the poems, set in and against the backdrop of Canada's ecotones, greenwoods, and lakes.
The Cure Is a Forest is an odyssey from the city and industry into both the past and the possible. A journey of introspection and awakening, where life and death, the numinous and the mundane, and dream and reality are subtly interchangeable, and where often the intricate and impalpable levels of the human and animal spirit and psyche are entwined and illumed.
| Title: | | The Cure Is a Forest |
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| Publisher: | | Guernica Editions |
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| Pub Date: | | 04/04/2011 |
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| ISBN: | | 9781550713350 |
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Paramita, Little Black by Suzanne Robertson (Description provided by Netgalley) ~In her first collection of poems, Suzanne Robertson meditates on the nature of intimacy; the connective tissue that binds stranger to stranger, human to animal, soul to landscape, heart to mind. Inspired by the Buddhist
paramitas - actions that spark a spiritual sojourn, the poems attempt to both transcend and stay grounded in a conventional universe. Follow the humourous, pedestrian plight of a secretary/writer grappling with her noonday demon, her love affair with Little Black, and the metamorphosis of her marriage as she harnesses the practical power of poetry, marrying words "to the wind horse," "to the lies and the gossip and the truth of the river / as it pours out the mouth of right-now."
Paramita,Little Black explores acts of transformation; documenting a journey to live and love authentically amidst the transient anatomy of our twenty- first century lives.
Paramita, Little Black was published as part of Guernica's First Poet Series, which is made up of first full poetry collections by authors 35 and younger.
A Toronto writer and photographer, Suzanne Robertson works at the Children's Aid Society, is a member of PEN Canada and Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, and volunteers with Hospice Toronto.
| Title: | | Paramita, Little Black |
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| Publisher: | | Guernica Editions |
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| Pub Date: | | 04/25/2011 |
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| ISBN: | | 9781550713367 |
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Sharks in the Rivers by Ada Limon (Description provided by Netgalley) ~The speaker in this extraordinary collection finds herself multiply dislocated: from her childhood in California, from her family’s roots in Mexico, from a dying parent, from her prior self. The world is always in motion—both toward and away from us—and it is also full of risk: from sharks unexpectedly lurking beneath estuarial rivers to the dangers of New York City, where, as Limón reminds us, even rats can find themselves trapped by the garbage cans they’ve crawled into. In such a world, how should one proceed? Throughout
Sharks in the Rivers, Limón suggests that we must cleave to the world as it “keep[s] opening before us,” for, if we pay attention, we can be one with its complex, ephemeral, and beautiful strangeness. Loss is perpetual, and each person’s mouth “is the same / mouth as everyone’s, all trying to say the same thing.” For Limón, it’s the saying -individual and collective- that transforms each of us into “a wound overcome by wonder,” that allows “the wind itself” to be our “own wild whisper.”
| Title: | | Sharks in the Rivers |
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| Publisher: | | Milkweed Editions |
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| Pub Date: | | 10/05/2010 |
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| ISBN: | | 9781571314383 |
It is an honor when an author provides a copy of their book for me to read and review. Werewolves rate highly at The Wytch's Mirror of course, and I had a blast reading and reviewing Quicksilver. I seem to be a collector of things in general and as my stacks of books build, I feel it is better to pass these wonderful reads on to be shared with others. 
