"In one of the most powerful poems in this collection of powerful poems, a young widow at the after-funeral reception for her deceased husband speaks of 'undigested grief.' The nearly insurmountable charge at the core of these poems is to confront and attempt to digest such grief. M's penetrating voice is both authentic and unforgettable as she maps the unwelcome territory through which she must journey To That Mythic Country Called Closure." Andrea Hollander, author of Landscape with Female Figure, Woman in the Painting, The Other Life, and House Without a Dreamer

"In this exciting new collection, Laura LeHew gives us poems of the most adventurous kind. Re-purposing the skeletal language and visual constructs of science and math, of computers and banking and even of standardized testing-utilizing, as well, both conventional and invented poetic forms-LeHew's philosophical algorithms are at once both personal and universal: poems of witness and social awareness, of love and loss, of happiness and its limits, of family dysfunction, health care, and a wide range of social ills that stem from the 'arrogant discourse' of those in charge. Willingly Would I...

In Impossible Lessons Jennifer Bullis entwines a Stevens like wit and attention to the music of words with a contemplative eye towards both nature and family. She makes the mythic and the domestic sing. Her language is both direct and incantatory circling through the great human paradox of our animal flesh and our spiritual ascensions. These poems give pleasure to the ear and to the heart as their kind and trustworthy voices present the natural world of the northwest, and the possibilities present to an intelligent, engaged mind moving through both "blossoms and smoke." Jeremy Voigt

"The poems in Something Like a River surprise the senses. In this collection, Roberta revisits the rivers of her youth in New York, contrasting them with the landscapes of her adult life in the West. Roberta's similes jump off the page: ' ice]bergs melt like candles'; her lists. 'forget our crass bosses, investment failures, / losing scratch ticket...' are short stories in themselves, and her details, 'the sickle tongues of hummingbirds', almost revelations. But most remarkable are some of her endings, which astonished me." Jana Harris, author of We Never Speak of It

"The Situation & What Crosses It, like any good diviner, can foretell your future or alter it, reveal your path or complicate the way with options. These sonnets are incantatory, articulate. They collide lyrical gambit with foreboding tone, the domestic with all that's wild: 'Desire must be dissected.' Follow the awe-full acuity of Amy Schrader's words, the refolding and gorgeous warning of syntax in every sonnet. She knows what's in the cards for you." -Elizabeth J. Colen, author of Waiting Up for the End of the World: Conspiracies

"With conversational language and stripped-down wisdom, Tim Sherrys One of Seven Billion is at once intimate and anonymous, revealing and evasive. In a time when many poets seem to value irony and wit, Sherry offers poems that are intelligently solid and emotionally honest. The speaker in many of these poems strikes me as a modern-day relative of William the Poet from the long, allegorical, Christian narrative Piers Plowman of the Middle Ages. He questions without finding answers then accepts that the act of questioning is what each of the seven billion of us must do to exist meaningfully....

Confident Music Would Fly Us to Paradise addresses the juxtaposition between fantasy life on an opera stage and silent roles of ordinary daily life, and the ability to distinguish which is which. Much of the work here is a response to the poet's childhood when she was barely spoken to and only spoke if absolutely necessary. Themes explore the tension between silence and voice, consider the non-verbal art of dance, and veer within trajectories of familial relationships. Levin's astonishing language is threaded on a through-line of music.

" Whether figurative or down to earth, Joseph Green's diction is apt. And his imagination ranges over 'the slope behind his] house, ' a garden in Marrakech, 'little sparkles in the infinite dark, ' and-it would seem-all the spots along the way. If Green does anything better than making routine seem magical, it is making the extraordinary appear commonplace. Or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, What Water Does at a Time Like This is a wise and beautiful book."-- Knute Skinner

"Remember that summer day when a shaft of sunlight spackled on the white wall next to you; shadow of Poplar leaves, moved by a breeze, danced through the laced curtained window holding you rapt. Simple, delicate, beautiful . . . compelling. TreeTalk is a thoughtful and contemplative work, and a delicate and heartfelt response to a chaotic world." Philip H. Red Eagle, author of Red Earth - A Vietnam Warrior's Journey and the originator and co-founder of The Raven Chronicles.