Two Brief Reviews/Looks
Wanda Phipps’ Wake-Up Calls (Soft Skull Press) contains 66 morning poems. These are open poems—she’s a clear but welcoming presence as she explores the morning with its hangovers, clarity, and lack of clarity. Plus, Phipps has a nice sense of form; these poems hold together with the lines being tightly controlled by a knowing hand. The poems are fleeting insights captured just before they pass.
Jennifer Firestone’s Snapshot (Sona Books) reads like a traveler’s journey of Italy. Florence looms large in these works. Firestone explores how once a traveler gets near something beautiful, sometimes the distance to it seems farther. In other words, she explores the idea of what it means to be a traveler, i.e. one who can afford to look in on other cultures. While the work remind me of my times in Italy, I wonder if the idea of the traveler figure is being presented as a common figure in the contemporary world. Are we all becoming distanced as travelers?
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