REVIEW: SWEET, YOUNG, AND WORRIED – BLYTHE BAIRD (BUTTON POETRY)
Baird truly pours her heart onto each page, and it can be felt beating in every single word. – Isabella Ciraco
Gotta be
Honest
My attitude
The fondest
Holding back?
Nothing’s promised
Sleeping on me
I’m an alarmist
– Reggie Johnson
Animals burn. Volcanos erupt. We aren’t told the story necessarily as it is; we are told how it feels to live and remember it.
REVIEW: THE WORLD ISN’T THE SIZE OF OUR NEIGHBORHOOD ANYMORE – AUSTIN DAVIS (WEASEL PRESS)
It’s an age of transition, somewhere between childhood and adulthood, on the blurry path to independence.
REVIEW: LOOK LOOK LOOK – CALLISTA BUCHEN (BLACK LAWRENCE PRESS)
There’s a sense of absence in this first section as the mother’s body becomes a singular state once again, but there’s also a slip from autonomy.
REVIEW: YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE A FRIEND – ASHLEY ELIZABETH (NIGHTINGALE & SPARROW PRESS)
…Dear John letter, ending with the words, “you are hurting me. i am letting you. i do not want to.” There it is, cut and dry: a breakup. Except it’s not.
WORKING ANIMALS – LIAM BATES (BROKEN SLEEP BOOKS)
After reading this body of work, I discuss its topics and subject matter with a respect that I did not expect to have when starting it.
YELLOW JOURNALISM: THANK YOU FOR THE CONTENT – REGGIE JOHNSON (RAD PRESS BOOKS)
One of my favorite wordplay moments, in this collection, can be seen in the confidence exuded in lines like “Reciprocation at its simplicity, You was the one taking shots, And now you stay missing me” (I Love Me).
REVIEW: FORTY STITCHES SEWING A BODY AGAINST A RAMSHACKLE NIGHT – C.T. SALAZAR (ANIMAL HEART PRESS)
And when we catch up to ourselves, we find we are tingling toes, prayer birds, wolf cubs, and gravity collapsing around you. C.T. Salazar gives us both a story of love, but also of finding oneself amidst the distractions of, well, everything else.
It’s becoming immersed in that which you do not know. It’s starting from scratch. It’s acknowledging the past that had been left out of the histories you told.