Blurb

I have been asked now and then to write a blurb for another poet's book. I don't know why people ask me: I always say, "But don't you want somebody famous to blurb you?" Anyway, blurbs can be fun to write, especially if it's a really good book of poems. Here is the blurb I wrote for Martha Silano's new book, Blue Positive, forthcoming from Steel Toe Books:

These are exuberant, humorous poems, bursting with love of language, the body, and deep play. Pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering are central to Blue Positive, and here Silano's eye is especially fresh and original: "The cosmos dances, // but an embryo? I see her more / as taking up shop, blow torch in one hand, // jack hammer in the other." (from "Begging to Differ.") "Harborview" is a harrowing poem about post-partum depression, where we learn "some god's gotten hold of me." But Silano shows us how a bright and ultimately optimistic sensibility can overcome disaster. As she tells us in a delightful crown of sonnets written for her son, "I try to laugh at what I can't control." In these fine poems Martha Silano takes us "over Niagra without the barrel," to a place where "Salvaging Just Might Lead to Salvation."

Check out Martha's book at her website, here. You'll be happy.