Crime Scene by Cynthia Pelayo (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2022) is an epic poem skillfully told through crime reports, taking us through the stages of grief from finding a body, many bodies, and solving human brutality. From Report No. 0009: “there will be a circus of useless people / Yellow tape and flashing lights / A perfect task for Sunday afternoon, find her, / Look at her, tell us what happened to her.” Pelayo captured me with unescapable lyrical truth from page one. I couldn’t stop reading until the last page was turned.
Girls from the County by Donna Lynch (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2022) poetry reminds us no matter where we go, we drag the ghosts, fear of early years along. From Identification: “Way out here at night / I’ve learned to identify / the fox… / it’s unsettling / that I’ve yet to identify / all the other screams.” Lynch’s haunting poetry sings with imagined/real terror of people and places, which live in most childhood memories, whether in counties or cities, as well as fairy tales and protective witches/magic poems to enjoy.
The Gravity of Existence by Christina Sng (Interstellar Flight Press, 2022) delivers ominously beautiful poems, many three lines long, that chill and delight. From Monstress page: “keepsakes I treasure / pinned on the wall / your flayed skin.” Sng has pages/sections devoted to themed short poetry centering around fables/fairy tales that tell a tale as well as any story/novel. It was a pleasure reading every poem, each made me think or smile. From Mysteries of Space page: “the many ways / I should be dead / parallel universes.”
The World Eats Love by Carol Edwards (The Ravens Quoth Press, 2023) is an alluring view of our deepest need for relief from the aching pressure of living to the measuring stick of others, and the driving hunger to find (or lose) ourselves in the shadows of others, in hope of purpose. From In Memory, “Somewhere in a silent square / sits a table with an empty glass / waiting to be filled with wine / so you can take a sip, and sigh.” Take time to sip each poem in this collection.