This carefully organized collection leads the reader via poems closely linked by theme, subject, attitude, and metaphor into a gripping, moving, masterfully assembled, deeply meaningful and satisfying story. One poem says, "Sadness, remember the sadness/in the world, in other people." It's what The Paper Rose does; it remembers. This book is a sacred mass sung in the presence of sadness.
David Budbill
In this new collection of poems by Tom Absher, one poem speaks and the next answers until, the reader observes, the entire collection is in dialogue with itself. The stories told...