Review by Lannie Stabile
Here it is, National Poetry Month, and here I am, kicking off the review of 17 mini-chapbooks from Sword & Kettle Press’ A Cup & Dagger series. The first of the bunch is Perhaps There Is a Sky We Don’t Know by Anne Pedone, a collection of poems that take the spirit of ancient Greek poet Sappho and, in the words of the author, “deconstruct and re-imagine the world of sexual desire, eroticism, and love.”
The collection begins with the line “Orpheus swells,” and I am already bracing myself for the onslaught of red cheeks and flushed chest. Pedone’s poems are more demure than a cleverly placed erection joke, however. She unironically uses words like nectar, taste, and swollen, which normally come across as romance novel buzz words, but somehow the combination is anything but raunchy. Within these pages, you’ll feel the light finger brush of nature, the glow of a hungry moon, and the soft stroke of a wing.
Though I do wish this particular collection ran longer and deeper, I found the mini-chapbook to be a lovely and gentle read.