Mini-Reviews of Render and The Wishing Tomb, Blessing of Long Weekends, and AWP Planning…already?

The four-day weekend of seventy-degree days, a blessed lack of traffic, walks with the wind off the cool water watching eagles feed their eaglets…time to read a couple of books, including two poetry books I’ve been meaning to review here and a book of Isak Dinesen’s, Winter’s Tales, a melancholy collection of short stories that were combinations of Hans Christian Andersen-toned fairy tale and morality tale with a twist.

Someone mentioned AWP 2014 to me today, and I thought, do I need to start planning things like readings and off-sites and parties already?? Yikes! I was thinking of trying to throw a party at my little townhouse, but we’re twenty minutes’ drive away from the conference site, so that might not be feasible. Maybe a collection of readings at a cupcake shop?

Mini-reviews!

I won a copy of Amanda Auchter’s The Wishing Tomb during the Great Poetry Giveaway, and I was delighted, because I really enjoyed Amanda’s first book and her previous chapbook, and was excited to read her follow-up effort. This was a wonderful sensual exploration of the history and personalities of New Orleans, from the 1600’s to Katrina, and conjures the sights, sounds and smells of the French Quarter, the mysterious charms and dangers, the crimes, the social injustices and heartbreaks. Dead prostitutes and magic charms, Jazz funerals and tombstone offerings. From the title poem, “The Wishing Tomb:” “Give me what you wish:/ bread crumbs, earrings, your high-heeled shoe/ and I will show you what you’ve earned:/ a rain-smeared kiss, a letter, or nothing/ but nights of teacups, an empty bed.”

Collin Kelly’s poetry has been on my radar for a while, because of our mutual love of pop culture figures, particularly superheroes. I think this book might be my favorite of Collin’s, at once more personal and more universal – memories of Knoxville’s 1982 World’s Fair, first boyfriends and early sexual experiences, family vacations juxtaposed with dreams of Charlie’s Angels, Pam Grier, and Lois Lane.  Especially touching moments include, in “Parallel Lines,” the speaker describing his grandmother dancing with him to “Heart of Glass,” and the speaker’s empathy during Margot Kidder’s breakdown, remembering her wonder in the arms of Superman in flight.  From “to Margot Kidder, with love:” “Margot Kidder was Lois Lane./ Fiesty, brave, in perpetual need of rescue./ Her dark hair, un-PC cigarette dangling,/ whiskey voice, in love with the one man/ she could never truly have.”