Poetry Book Reviews

More than 1,000 years after the epic poem of Beowulf was first penned, Andrew B. F. Carnabuci continues a long tradition of demystification and offers up his own take with Beowulf: A Verse Translation from the Anglo-Saxon.

What remains unchanged in this accessible and unbiased translation is the story itself: the tragic and triumphant life of Beowulf, a great Scandinavian warrior whose bravery and leadership has become the stuff of legend. Beginning with his youthful battles in Denmark against the infamous monster Grendel, and Grendel’s even more malevolent mother, it doesn’t take long for the Beowulf to demonstrate his […]

The work of twelve talented poets overflows the pages of Perspective to Pen: An Anthology, created by Robert A. Cozzi and edited by Ben C. Ward. This collection touches on every imaginable angle of the human experience – abstract and symbolic musings, bold political statements, heartrending commentaries on love, and vivid personal recollections of childhood and lost memory.

Lisa Bain fearlessly explores grief and perseverance with unconventional structure and commonplace imagery in her work, while Brian Fuchs hurls powerful political demands as easily as he shares vulnerable vignettes of pain and loss. Shanika Benoit’s work resembles mantras and meditations, […]

Bruce K. Berger, a profoundly insightful poet and decorated veteran, has finished a decades-long journey in Fragments: The Long Coming Home from Vietnam, offering a distinctly unique glimpse into an infamous war.

This striking collection of poems is a wide-ranging and unforgettable examination of his life-changing experiences in that bloody war, the indescribable damage that it wrought both at home and abroad, and America’s endless stream of military conflicts, a legacy that rings powerfully in today’s grim geopolitical atmosphere. These poems are gripping, each in their own way, representing a piece of the poet’s personal journey, from raw, unforgettable […]

A poetic guide for choosing an authentic life against a global backdrop of injustice, Side Steps Terrorizing Sound Bites by Amy Jean is a creative and powerful collection, accompanied beautifully by illustrations from Eric Savage.

With the underlying theme of taking control of one’s life, rather than being swept along with the systems in place, these poems are empowering, accusatory, curious, and fearless. The subject matter of these lyrical passages varies wildly, from the wonders of the natural world to inequality of all kinds, yet each of the poems in this extended “chime” feel carefully constructed, without wasting words.

Jean […]

In the first, eponymous selection in the engaging collection, Perfectly Round Ripples, poet Johnny Flaherty recalls throwing three objects into a pond—a golf ball, a jagged stone, and “an old sneaker with laces missing.” They all splashed differently, but then, each one

…made perfectly round ripples

that traveled all the way

to the farthest shores

From this Flaherty suggests that our deeds, whether good or bad, will likewise make equal, round ripples in the cosmic sea – a motif reflecting the serene and emotive nature of these poems. He often returns to water, to the sea, for inspiration, as […]