PositiveLibrary JournalGraham’s poems are like those of John Donne and E.E. Cummings but on speed dial. Like Donne, Graham seeks to encounter the metaphysics of everything. Like Cummings, she writes high-spirited lines with little punctuation, which, although confusing, makes the words move fast. Her use of enjambment serves to quicken the pace of these collage-like, metaphysical poems. In addition, most of her poems are long-lined, which make them seem perhaps more difficult than they are ... Donne’s phrase \'the vale of soul-making,\' quoted by Graham in an interview, aptly suggests the terrain of these poems; challenging as they are, many of them seem like prayers. For all poetry fans.
Alice Notley
PositiveLibrary JournalWritten in a breathless e.e. cummings style, the poem fractures the rules of spelling, grammar, syntax, and formal poetry and is at times unintelligible. But it also brims with fresh, vibrant metaphors and irony, not the least being the religious innuendos that permeate the text. For sophisticated readers of poetry.
Rosalie Moffett
RaveLibrary JournalThe story is built around Moffett’s standing outside her mother’s hospital room thinking about her before and after dementia through \'these images,\' which she wistfully describes as \'Filling in/ what isn’t there.\' Highly recommended for all libraries.
Tina Chang
PositiveLibrary JournalAlthough some poems seem too politicized, it helps that Chang writes with a wonderful sense of metaphor ... A mysterious I-narrator speaks, whispers, and sometimes hisses these intense, urgent poems, which ultimately form a lament. For academic holdings and public collections that include a political or own voices element.
Charles Simic
RaveLibrary JournalReflective and melancholic, with references to people leaving and lights flashing in the distance, the poems evoke a sense of loss—either present or impending ... For all libraries.
