RaveThe Rumpus...haunted by an uneasy attitude toward selfhood ... Feel Freeattempts to gaze unflinchingly...wondering what it means to live a life when a single, knowable self simply won’t hold still ... it seems vital that poetry continue to inquire into twenty-first century selfhood, even in the absence of satisfying conclusions ... That Laird’s poetry does this modestly, even in self-deprecation, does not diminish the courage of the act. If Feel Free does not disabuse too thoroughly readers’ own comforting notions, there is momentary refuge to be found in its wry lucidities — that rare and particular solace of camaraderie borne by good, honest mental company ... If something like \'transcendence\' is folded within these pages, it is in these moments where, fraught with doubt as the human experience is, something shines through.
