John Amen
Dark Souvenirs
New York Quarterly Books, 2024 $16.95
Playlist:
John Amen's Dark Souvenirs was prompted by the suicide of his uncle, Richard Sassoon. Amen seeks clarity around Sassoon's death while expressing grief over the sudden and violent loss. The poems, however, quickly expand to include imaginative leaps, Amen recasting Sassoon as his brother, his son, a stranger he meets in random places, and a teacher who graced the world with a unique brand of wisdom, madness, and humor. Throughout his sixth collection, Amen navigates stunning imagery, memorable declarations, and language that shimmers with signature musicality.
Poems read:
“Family Systems”
“Apprenticeship”
“Dark Souvenirs”
“Recovery”
Robin Michel
Beneath a Strawberry Night Sky
Raven & Wren Press, 2023
$15
Playlist:
“Neither a reproach nor a celebration, [this collection] is a look at the underside of the known world, where everyone is at fault, there are no clear solutions, and the painful beauty of the search is all that is left.”
—Indigo Moor
“…poems that seek redemption in their honest examinations of a life. They speak not only to poetry but to domesticity, motherhood, and marriage—squarely facing the limits and ends of love.” —Shara McCallum
“…spare and beautiful…wise and powerful.” —Lynne Kaufman
“These poems recognize the shape-shifting nature of love and the way poetry saves us.” —Angie Minkin
Anne F. Walker
Ink and Ink and Flesh and Length
The Black Spring Press Group, 2024
$16
Playlist:
Most of these poems began on a train from Emeryville to Toronto. Most are 100-word prose poems where different shapes, colors, and textures fly over and in multiple same-sized square boxes. They reflect landscapes, bodies, travel, time, and rooted memories. Precision of image, narrative, and language are aesthetic goals, as are storylines that deepen with rereading.
Poems read:
“Warm Springs"
“Beating Heart of the Track"
“Beating Heart of the Track"
“Good Use of Beautiful Light (on Clinton Street)"
“Glutted on a Morning Rose"