A new poetry collection by Deborah Landau. Through a series of poems preoccupied with loneliness and mortality, Skeletons flashes with prismatic effect across the persistent allure of the flesh. Initiated during Brooklyn's early lockdown, the book reflects the increasingly troubling simultaneity of Eros and Thanatos, and the discontents of our virtual lives amidst the threats of a pandemic and corrosive politics. Spring blooms relentlessly while the ambulances siren by.
In a book coursing with energy, Landau remains in control. 'This is my fifth book of poems. I had my way with each of them.' Indeed she has! A good addition to most collections.
Landau’s fifth collection takes a wry and realistic look at the scale of a life ... Most striking is the mouthfeel of the poems, whether arid or salivating, as in a poem about cherries ... Skeletons is clever, pragmatic, and, finally, ecstatic about 'this bag of bones' we’re bound to.