Poetry Books

I loved the book. I was wonderful and personal with a realistic street vibe. The poems made me think about life in a new prospective.

I found the book to be very interesting. Some of the poems were very realistic. The book was a great one and a must read.

I thought that the book was very good, and it seemed to be written from the heart. Darkness is a good poem.

This book is awesome! It makes one really reflect on life. No matter what your socioeconomic status is, or what race, or origin you are, you can relate to this book. Anyone with children should read My Daughters. See from a man's perspective what a blessing he feels his children are instead of them being just a responsibility. The book is incredible. The authour helps you reflect on where you've come from and gives great encouragement to get you where you want to go. I think everyone should have a copy of Humble Beginnings in their home.

I HAPPENED TO GET A COPY OF THIS BOOK AND IT REMINDED ME OF MY UPBRINGINGS, AND I COULD REALLY RELATE TO THE POEM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS. THIS AUTHOR TELLS A STORY THAT MAKES YOU FEEL THAT HE IS TALKING TO YOU FACE TO FACE. I WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE WHO FEELS THAT THEY HAVE NO WAY TO GO. JUST READ THE POEM LOCK DOWN. MR. PETERSON HAS A GREAT COLLECTION OF WORK.

Tears streamed down my face and a solid mass lodged itself firmly in my throat as I read the preface to this book. I had to take a breather before reading any of the poems inside. How could this writer, D. Alison Watt, know me, my child, and my expereinces so well? As I made my way through the poems, a little at a time, I felt relief as I realized that someone out there feels the same way I do! It is ok to laugh at life, cry at life, and wonder how I got on this crazy train called autism. My sister-in-law purchased this book for me as a Christmas gift, and I have read it so many times since then that my copy is somewhat worn. I plan to purchase this for my daughter's teachers, doctors and for my friends who I have met who also have children on the spectrum.

This is a MUST READ for any/everyone who loves, works with, or knows people that are affected by autism.

As a mother of a child with autism, I feel as though the author looked inside me and read my soul. Then, she put into words every emotion that I have felt since my child was diagnosed. What a precious gift she gives us, sharing such intimate writings about her daughter and her life. I bought this book for some friends that have children with autism, but I also bought it for some folks that I thought needed to understand more about autism. When I first got the book, I had to sit and read it cover to cover. Now, it is never far from reach for when I need to take a few minutes to read one of the poems to comfort or inspire me. It is a beautiful book, beautifully written and the photographs are amazing.

This is an amazing book. A must read for all who might be connected to a person who has a disability and their amazing families- from dentist, to teacher, to the ice cream store owner! It's pausing and gives wise perspective.
This book is pointing to every breath a mother takes in the love of her child and her family. We can never be reminded enough about the impact we potentially have when our worlds collide- like the two mothers in Hurricane Dancing. Working in human services isn't just a job and we should take the time to look at the work we are doing and constantly self-monitor our growth as a person and as a professional.
Julie Lambert- Senior Clinician, Integrated Clinical Solutions, Georgetown, MA

Great poems and photos of her daughter--cried many tears over a number of the poems. Feelings were communicated so well.
These poems enable those of us who have never experienced this type of daily stretching of our very being to understand both some of the joys and frustrations that bringing up such a bundle of energy involves. It also enables us to be more patient, kind and helpful in our interactions with all parents and children, particularly in public. I highly recommend to any who read this review to read, enjoy(and yes, even cry)over the poems in this book. And then to encourage your friends and acquaintances to also purchase this book as I know they too will be well pleased they did so.
I look forward to D. Alison Watt's next book of poems.

Hurricane Dancing by D.Alison Watt is a significant work that takes the reader to the heart of what its like living with, caring for, and loving, a child with Autism. I predict that selections from this insightful book will be read over and over at conferences and trainings for many many years to come.
While Hurricane Dancing is a readily accessible book of poetry with beautiful photograghy that everyone can enjoy and treasure, it should be required reading for all professionals who work with individuals who have Autism and their families.
If awareness and acceptance is what we are stiving for, then it doesn't get any better than this.
Hurricane Dancing, a little book with a very big heart, deserves wide distribution.
Marcel Charpentier LICSW, Mass. Dept. of Mental Retardation

I didn't just devour this book, I licked every word off every page and cried when it was all gone. I also loved the aftertaste.

If you like Aimee Bender, Barry Yourgrau, Lydia Davis, Donald Barthelme, you'll enjoy Tognazzini.

Buy it, read it, spread the word. His stuff is yummity-yum good!

I ordered the book after discovering it in "Poets and Writers" and was immediately captivated by the brevity, frankness, honesty of Tognazzini's brilliance on every page. A real treat, must-read, literary gem--underrated.

Anthony Tognazzini is more than a brilliant writer; he is an extraordinarily gifted cartographer. He has created a relief map of the human psyche in its gorgeous flawed glory--the meandering browns and bottomless blues and twisting greens that define our dizzy spirit; the mountains and valleys of dense loneliness that surround our mortal coil. All the beauty and all the blemishes are manifest in his magnificent prose.

"I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These" is intellectual, innovative, insightful, incisive, intuitive, intense, and, FUNNY! Tognazzini infuses his slick, saucy wit on every page. Every day I identify a new favorite among these spectacular shorts. Today I have two: the allusively absurd "The Reason We Were So Afraid," and the vibrant snapshot "Many Fine Marriages Begin at Friends' Parties." The header of this review is a line from "Same Game" that swallowed me whole.

This omnibus is for all of us--those of us with questions and those who have the answers. Those who think and those who feel. Those who are lost and those who've been found. This book is a gift. So, to Anthony Tognazzini, I say, THANK YOU.

(Anthony read as part of my visiting authors series at the West Side YMCA on April 27, 2007. This is from my introduction to the event).

Anthony Tognazzini's stories show an acceptance of calamity, a knowledge that what we prepare for may never come, but something shockingly unexpected very well might. And throughout his stories, sometimes very much coming as a surprise, there are moments of pure empathetic humanity, where Anthony gives us characters simply longing for a better life.

His stories explode the artificiality of social graces and the necessity of violating them to get at the rich, rewarding or scary stuff that life offers us. There's a desire to not be caught in automatic action and reaction, but to be vividly present, awake. Sometimes he does it by having his characters react tangentially to their prompts, never quite meeting the situation head-on, but finding novel ways of engaging their fellow actors, their surroundings.

There's a mounting sense of desperation at the heart of many of the stories in "I Carry a Hammer for Occasions Such As These" Anthony's vivid imagery and twists of language and meaning reflect the fracturing of personalities; the breaks in communication between neighbors, lovers, family members. His well-honed sense of the absurd serves both to heighten the emotional blows when they come, and also to highlight the preposterous and ridiculous moments that life constantly presents us. The stories, written with the economy and force of poetry, are both dream-state and hard-reality, and much of the joy in reading them is the constant subtle shifting between one and the other. But no matter how unusual the image--and I prefer the term original--Anthony always keeps us in the physical realm, rooted in sensation.

Most of the stories are short, some shockingly so. But whether they be a three-sentence story like the clear and utterly concise "The Difference," or rich, extended stories like the violent, erotic and heartbreaking `Gainesville, Oregon--1962," Anthony shows a skill and ability to take us along for whatever the length of the story, like a jazz musician who can play a pithy, classic melody, or can stretch out and blow, always riveting our attention.

Reading Anthony Tognazzini's bracingly original work is a complete pleasure, both an escape and an opportunity to dig in deep to something worthwhile. In one of the last pieces in "I Carry a Hammer..." "Found Story," he writes "I found this gift...and I so much want you to have it."

I often long for a simpler life, with fewer complications and distractions, in which my attention span can occasionally linger to enjoy a particular moment. The sun in my life reached its zenith a few years ago and is picking up speed as it drops toward the horizon and so I tend to resent that, as a society, we boast of our superior ability to multi-task even as we sheepishly admit to the negative effect of refusing to take time out to occasionally clear the mechanism. That said, I've resisted "flash fiction" as something that caters to our ever-shortening attention span.

For the uninitiated, flash fiction contains all of the classic story elements: protagonist, conflict, and resolution; but unlike the traditional short story, the limited word length often leaves some of these elements to only be implied in the written storyline, which is perhaps best exemplified by Ernest Hemingway's six-word flash, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Although it can be traced back to Aesop's Fables, with the likes of Chekhov, O. Henry, Kafka, H.P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury contributing, flash fiction is enjoying a resurgence on the Internet. Although I sometimes cringe from the niche it fills in our fractured society, despite all of its professed connectivity through cell phones and email, flash is a viable art form that presents a challenge to the writer he or she doesn't normally face when writing a longer piece: strictly meat and bones writing without all of the side dishes.

Anthony Tognazzini seems to have mastered this literary art form with his collection of flash fiction, I Carry a Hammer In My Pocket for Occasions Such as These. Tognazzini understands the concept, in flash fiction, that what is left unsaid is as equally important as what is said. In flash, less is more.

Composed of fifty-seven pieces ranging in length from a single paragraph to several pages, none hit the reader over the head, yet most hit the nail on the head with their brevity, focus and message. From the opening piece, A Primer, in which a naked man paints himself into the landscape, to the title piece about a brief encounter between strangers on the street, to A Telephone Conversation with My Father (yeah, they really do love each other), to The Enigma of Possibility -- how can a man with the longest tongue in the world manage to find a way to pay the rent in the aftermath of having just lost his job? -- to Working Out with Kafka, where Kafka meets himself while riding a bike crossing a bridge, to Old House -- "I know how lonely the house is when there is no one to live there," to Baseball Is Dangerous but Love Is Everything, where love cures a young man's "not-right scramble and his thinking irregular slightly," the result of a childhood beaning on the head with a baseball bat, I Carry a Hammer is a fine collection of flash that ranges from the fantastical to the commonplace, that contains humor and portrays grief and loss, that turns the mundane into the fascinating, and is almost always thought-provoking.

Tognazzini's voice is fresh, his narrative sharp: My stomach jumped like an angry, barking dog and I spun, throwing up in every direction. When I finished, I regarded the abstract, brown-red splashes on the tile. I thought, Pollock, and it seems tailor-made for flash; yet for some reason, perhaps because their text lack a surgeon's precision with a scalpel, the longer pieces, particularly Gainesville, Oregon -- 1962 -- don't work as well. Tognazzini's talent seems to "flash" with brilliance more often in the flash element.

Still, the overall effect of reading I Carry a Hammer is addicting: you never know what you're going to get when you turn the next page, but you can't refrain from taking a peek.

Recommended.

-- From "The Smoking Poet," literary ezine, Summer 2007 Issue

Wow....I enjoyed it thoroughly. At moments you may become enthralled in controversy and then settled with expressions of love and intimacy. The author has an understanding of pulling readers into her thoughts and in opening closed-minds. Hinton's personality reads strong as well as sensitive in her writing. There is so much to be appreciated and admired in this book. If you love good poetry, you'll embrace this book, so don't miss out!

Hollie Hinton captivates you in just a few short sentences when you realize she truly writes from the heart. A wide variety of topics are expressed through this artistic book of stories, poetry, and prose as the author takes you on trip to view the world through her own eyes. How often are we priveleged to escape our own reality and view the world from the perspective of another? Now make that perspective one that has overcome the personal tragedy, conflicted love, and the fight to keep her hopes and dreams alive. This book is a definite 5 stars all the way. Once I had it in my hands I couldn't put it down and most likely neither will you. Check it out.

H.Hinton is an excellent writer of poetry, her book is easy to read and is something that I can pick up and just ecsape from the everyday chaos. We've had similar experiences and it nice to see someone placing thoughts like mine in this form. I have this book on the coffee table and many guest grab it and always have different views which opens a great debate (which I love). This poetry is for the young, old and almost any who is in search for true poetry from the heart. I wish and hope that any fan of poetry pick this book up. You'll be Enlightened

The book is amazing I must of read it like ten times. Eveytime I read it I find something new in the words.

yo i think that book of poetry is MADDD GOOD. it shows many of todays problems in a very artistic manner. i enjoyed readin tha book and cant wait for book #2. yo hinton keep up tha good flowetry....i agree with all that stuff u waz talkin about...lets keep up tha movement..I'M OUT. one love

Insightful. From someone who knows. I don't ordinarily go for poetry (with a few exceptions: Charles Bukowski, Pleasant Gehman, Bill Shields, Dan Fante, Jim Northrup, Jack Micheline, etc.) so it's rare for me to spend money on a poetry book--but when I do, it's usually something worthwhile--and this certainly is that: a gem of a book. I'd like to see Suzanne Lummis write more. The lady has paid her dues and it shows. I don't recommend everything I read--but this is certainly a book I would recommend. Too bad it's such a slim volume. There's an old saying, though: good things come in small packages--and Suzanne Loomis' IN DANGER is certainly one of those good things. I had to give it five stars. Also, that was a moving obit the lady wrote in the L.A. Times a few years back when the late great Charles Bukowski passed on. The piece was so well done that I had to cut it out and frame it. I don't know, I'm sure others have felt this way, but there they were: tears rolling down my face when I heard that Buk was no longer with us. Thank you, Suzanne Lummis.

suzanne lummis take the femme fatale sterotype and inverts it, and as a result, witty and evocative poems are born out of her experience in los angeles; especially the dirty parts that no one wants to know about. the poems should be read while drinking a stiff one or listening to tom waits...astonishing....

Can't add much to David St. Johns' rave intro, but simply put, these poems live up to this bold title in ways intriguing, charming and stark. Though they're indelibly fringe Hollywood, they penetrate mysteries that have no address. In other words, these poems are excellent. You'll love discovering every one.

Two lines to give you a taste: "City of sirens and lowdown ways, neons wincing like nerve ends, see what you've done?" and "You were the B-movie I just had to sit through again." Equally touching and jolting, these poems are one part earthquake and two parts heartache.

Usually in Raymond Chandler (the writer whose noir Los Angeles world leaps to mind when you're reading In Danger), the women are darkly lit and shot slightly out of focus-they're alluring, risky, always our of reach. Suzanne Lummis has turned the tables. She gets inside these shadowy creatures; she's the femme whose got her weapon trained on Marlowe, a guy who's not such a prince after all. It's a brilliant conceit, and it sustains itself throughout this fascinating collection. Like her heroines, Lummis' poetry skirts an edge; it's breathless, chancy, full of juice. If only more poets wrote this way.

This is a must have resource for teachers of African-American history, specifically the time period known as "the misery days." The music provided on the CD, along with the storytelling introductions, captures my elementary students' attention year after year. Nothing conveys a message like song, and Alice McGill delivers a message of courage, hope, and a life without fear.

The original music and the creative fabric art work combined have made this a delightful introduction to this newcomer to eastern North CArolina. I have given away 4 of the same books to other residents of Scotland Neckbecause I think that the book reflects the heritage and customs of this particular culture. It is a book that deserves wide-spread use to the children and residents in the Tillery and Halifax County area of NC.

These African-American slave songs tell the stories passed down through oral traditions. Each illustration is a fabric collage illustration, which is quite beautiful. I only knew one of the dozen songs. A sound CD accompanies the book. The author tells her personal connection to each song after presenting each song's words. The music is in the back.

Alice McGill is a real historian. I treasure not only the songs but her stories that go with them. Her voice is soothing and warm. My 2 year old granddaughter begs for Alice McGill when I pick her up from daycare. My cassette goes from car to house many times so we can listen to it over and over. Thank you, Alice, for sharing your history, stories and songs with all of us. I'm ordering this on CD to give to Julia, my granddaughter, and all of your other books, too.

Whenever I put the CD on, my baby pauses from whatever she is doing, captivated by McGill's lovely, rich voice. The CD is a permanent fixture in our CD changer, so I have gradually picked up all the songs. "Who Dat Tappin'" and "Dip-Dap Dudio" are playful chants that will always get a laugh from baby, even if you can't carry a tune. With the help of the book, which contains both printed lyrics and sheet music, I have memorized "Liddy Lay Low" to sing at naptime and bedtime. When my daughter is a little older, I am sure we will look at the beautiful illustrations together and I will teach her rhymes such as "Rock de Cradle, Joe." School-age children might want to use the collection as the basis for an American history project, and kids who are studying a musical instrument will enjoy picking out the tunes.

I enjoyed this book. Through her writing I experience the city and country life as she experienced it. I feel as if she is speaking directly to and with me.I look forward to her next book.

This book spoke to my heart and took me back to a place I had left long ago. What great memories this poetry evoked! I haven't thought about playing hopscotch in many, many years. I found it VERY difficult to put the book down and yet was sorry to reach the end. The poems about relationships were so truthful and I could relate to so many of them. I loved reading about the relatives as it reminded me of those who had been in my life, left their stamp, and have since passed away. This is a great book even if you did not grow up in Baltimore back in the day. The reader can relate to these poems no matter where they lived. This book makes a wonderful gift to those who once lived in Baltimore and for those who still live there.

Excellent read! I remember when you carried around your little journal keeping abreast of the daily happenings of life. To see, feel, and know the many things that brought you to this point to revealing "In the Silence" to others the "simple" yet enjoyable times of life lived and loved. In the Silence speaks loud-ly.

This is a little book with a big impact. With her short poems, the author she imparts wisdom, evokes nostalgia and gives insight to human nature and recalls daily life in her hometown.

Mary takes me back to the "neighborhood" in Charm City (Baltimore), the community town where I sometimes grew up, made many mistakes and learned how wonderful life can be. Marble steps, crooners on the corner, sub shops, falling in love; it all happened there just as she describes it. How wonderful to re-live, in print, memorialized by someone who was there. How courageous of her to display for the world the wonders of love, partnering, confusion and parenting as only a woman can do it. I am looking forward to many more missives by Mary.

When I first discovered that a past class required a brand new hardcover "Inferno" when there were a thousand 50 cent paperbacks of other translations out there already, I was not so happy to buy this book. My opinion quickly changed when I opened it - this is not a usual rendition of Dante. Studying from this text, I felt like I was reading Inferno for the first time. Palma captures the imagery, the poetry, and the emotional dynamics of the Italian. This is certainly the most beautiful translation of Dante I have ever encountered, and if you cannot read the original, this is the requisite edition to make up for the loss.

if lights did outshine the sun. If the grand lion purchased her cub. if i lived long will I back be beyond our sun?
I have enjoyed this translation above all, as a journey into the deepest fears of a heart. Wording so finely crafted, this version soars even higher than the tre tim poet laurete's.
I did believe in an idea that the almighty bestows certain individuals with a spark. Sometimes that spark is a beauty that is in the looks. At others, in the heart of writing. This soul must have been touched by that omnipotent. whilome in Albion there dwelt a youth, child Harold was he hight.

how many people have heard about Byron? Lord Gordon Noel? The theme that plays his harp on his own strange imagine.

As that man once had his time of eternity here on the mother, so have we as others, as well as others so have they well. \

Well lived?

Well died?

I no not of that, but here we live and then we live, forward his is the isabella of a fountain,-- dreams and dreams fallen into dreams.

I wonder a thousand years, we fall asleep, does it end up feeling no more?

Read him! This translation in all makeup is beautiful, elegant. Let go and float down a lineup linnen limes, and the others? Other translations? None of this Magnitude of elegance. None even of this nobel voice of Diction. I'll admit i have no ticket in this line of poetry. I'm speaking of the hard Rime. This one had many of a hard rime. Though speed does do well in its tempo. I have no understanding to say this is the best translation. It did move me deeper than the rest, though. If dimes tangle loose by A wild of pink lemonade lowering, will the crem shine upwards even in the plains of hard woodless tundra. As it soaks my sleeps, slivers become numb. cards remind me of railings of bronzen warmth.

I've read a great number of Inferno translations, & after Robert Pinsky's this is my favorite. In many places it's even more cursive than Pinsky's, but at some moments that are crucial to me it falls short. In any event, this is a wonderful translation to read both for Dante's & it's own merit.

Having explored many translations of Dante's Inferno, I found Palma's translation a revelation. I have read those by Mandelbaum, Sinclair, Singleton, Sayers, Anderson, Ciardi, Pinsky, Zapulla and Musa. Although all of them have things in their favor, none of these versions captured me the way that Palma's has. His ability to incorporate Dante's 'terza rima' (triple rhyme scheme - aba bcb cdc, etc.) into his faithful translation, along with a natural, unforced American English syntax, seems to capture some of what Dante might have had in mind. As a reader I was swept along by the language, from tercet to tercet, the rhyme scheme and poetic language providing a powerful driving force that connected the verses within each canto. The Publisher's Weekly review of the hardbound edition took Palma to task for "some puzzling, clunky passages." Well, yes, but the powerful momentum and overall readability provided by the terza rima more than compensates for the occasional "poetic" word order demanded by the rhymes - Palma's introductory essay accurately points out that Dante's Italian has plenty of its own puzzling, clunky passages. I have appreciated Allen Mandelbaum's scholarly blank verse translation for providing an accurate and poetic sense of Dante's meaning - I still use it when I wish to check the appropriateness of a particular translation - but reading it always felt like work. In another recent translation, Pinsky incorporated consonant-driven rhymes (a la Yeats) to simulate terza rima, and though his translation is elegant, it didn't grab me as did Palma's. (And, I admit to being vaguely, and perhaps unreasonably, disturbed by Pinsky's compression of Dantean tercets into smaller numbers of lines.) In comparison, once I started Palma's translation, I couldn't stop reading. Having finished the first reading, I read it again. And then again. This has never happened to me before. It still is on my bedside table, and I dip into it often. It is a joy to read aloud. I appreciate the facing Italian text - it is enjoyable to sound out the Italian for comparison with the English, even if one doesn't read Italian. I'd love to see Palma do the rest of the Divine Comedy - this translation deserves wide respect and readership.

I had always wanted to read Dante's La Divinia Comedia, but literature from the fourteenth century often requires the constant use of a dictionary while reading. I was pleasantly surprised to find Palma's translation both modern and entertaining. It makes Dante seem more like a contemporary writer, and one often forgets the work is over 700 years old.
Be assured, you'll have trouble putting this book down, it makes you feel like you were right there with Dante and Virgil as they tour the Inferno. Another nice feature is this version also contains the original Latin on the facing pages. Invest in the hardcover copy, because you'll want to keep this one around for many years!

It needs to be mentioned that in order to really love this collection, you should already have a true love of poetry as well. That's really what makes this work as well as it does. Yes, the poems are explicit, physically sensual celebrations (and afterglows) of sexual pleasure. But the medium is SO often misused. It's either simply diving into smut, or even worse burying sex in some transcendental fugue that not even Don Juan could wade through.
This book however, touches all the right places. Between physical pleasure, intellectual lust, and emotional connections: The most satisfying and enjoyable sex is experienced in long-term relationships based on respect, trust, and love. If you love great poetry, AND great sex, this is for you.

I am very pleased with the quality of the poetry in this anthology. It is very sensual, and sexual without being vulgar. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's something you can pick up when the mood strikes, and can even inspire you to write some love poems of your own.

"Sex within a context of real love, commitment, and safety is expansive and deeply pleasurable." ~Wendy Maltz

Until I started writing my own poetry; there was no way to realize the depth of emotion present in intimate poems. How do you even remember everything that happens when almost unaware of time itself and captured in a mystery or moment of breathless wonder?

Do poets hover above themselves in some dreamlike state observing this ecstatic union awaiting its birth in words? Does the soul watch the body's pleasure, silently? It seems it does because when poems arrive often they spill out onto the page in line after line of meaningful remembrance without much effort or thought. These types of poems seem born of longing, fantasy, dreams and the ancient desires all humans share. There is also humor in some of the rhymes or a casual elegance.

Nikki Giovanni brings an amusing style to her poetry in "That Day." The poem dances with the pleasure of the rhyme.

if you've got the key
then i've got the door
let's do what we did
when we did it before

Peeling an Orange by Virginia Hamilton Adair also shows the playfulness of love as two lovers play with oranges and the spicy scent of orange oil fills the air.

There are poems that are more direct and sensual and they explore the depths of the human experience and often express our desire to feel loved until our bodies vibrate at a higher frequency. This subtle purr or contentment after a loving experience can actually be felt in the body, but it is often difficult to describe. Some of the lovers wish to die in this blissful state after union. Wendy Lee expresses this desire in "Seamless Beauty" where she wishes to "fall into a deep sleep and never wake up."

Many of the poems contain nature images, especially water, the moon and surprisingly...many images of moths. What more could I wish for? There are swarms of luminous moths or ecstasy in a desert sea. A few of the poems have culinary themes. Jay Farbstein remembers a scene in the kitchen and how the pleasure of tastes turns into a worshipful experience.

Mostly, this is beautiful creative writing with a sensual theme. There are poems reflecting on past loves, poems about intense sensual encounters (Making Love by Walt Farran) and others where the poet wishes for future fulfillment. Like in Thirst by Linda Alexander:

Like a blade of summer grass
turning towards a fragrance
of rain caught in the air's
cooling, I come back to you

Wendy Maltz has created a sensitive and sacred sanctuary of healthy sexual experience in which lovers give sexuality a unique voice filled with imagination and metaphor. This is beyond romance, but never abusive or degrading. There is still a subtle mystery present in most of the poems. I loved the images in On Entering the Sea where Nizar Qabbani speaks of his experience as a "sliding under the skin of water...like writing with jasmine water."

The poems are divided into five chapters: Anticipation & Desire, Self-Awareness & Discovery, Admiration & Appreciation, Union & Ecstasy and Afterglow & Remembrance.

The poets featured: Marge Piercy, Emily Dickinson, Patti Tana, Robert Browning, Robin Jacobson, Linda Alexander, Floyd Skloot, George Keithley, David Meuel, Debra Pennington Davis, Penny Harter, Nikki Giovanni, Rumi, Trudi Paraha, Vigrinia Hamilton Adair, Stephen Dunn, Abigail Albrecht, Sharon Olds, Octavio Paz, Nizar Qabbani, Anon, Cummings, Kenneth Rexroth, June Sylvester Saraceno and Penny Harter.

What is especially delicious about this book of poetry is the introduction to a variety of new poets. For many of the poets, this is the first time their poems were published. I fell in love with Trudi Paraha's poetry. Her descriptions of painting love poems over sheets went beyond creative. She plays with words as if they owned her heart.

The erotic human experience is often a place of immense pleasure and most of the poets in this book seem to be writing from a place of relationship, trust and honesty. There is a nurturing quality to the lust, a beautiful connection between souls and an almost spiritual element in the union of lovers in a comforting embrace and heartfelt connection.

David Meuel's poems are especially interesting. He speaks of talking in touches and listening to each other's fingertips. In just a few sentences he can create amazing situations of desire. "What Makes It Good" shows his talent and "Ten Years Together" displays a rare intimacy between souls.

While you may think of erotic poems as poetry to excite passion, I found many of these poems were dipped in pleasure, but still retained an element of comfort. This is the type of book you can read at night before you go to bed and it may even produce beautiful dreams of the person you love. Intimate Kisses is as much a kiss for the mind as for the heart.

Something like my soul slips from me
and goes to you,
without choice or question,
and wraps itself around you
all night, like the breath
of the moon
~Gina Zeitlin

Intimate Kisses is an excellent choice is you have longed to know the experience of poets who can deftly describe the devotional side of desire. If you love this book, you may want to look for Passionate Hearts: The Poetry of Sexual Love. I can highly recommend both selections because they focus on positive images of sexual love.

~The Rebecca Review

Intimate Kisses: The Poetry of Sexual Pleasure is a lovely little book edited by Wendy Maltz, M.S.W. This is her fifth book on sexuality. She's a sex therapist and marriage counselor whose work has appeared in national magazines and on video.

Maltz says that "negative messages about sexual pleasure cause a lot of unnecessary personal suffering." She believes that understanding sexual pleasure will help people incorporate it into their own lives, while recognizing that "there are many different types and intensities of sexual pleasure." People's concept of pleasure also changes as they change.

She divided the book into five sections: anticipation and desire; self-awareness and discovery; admiration and appreciation; union and ecstasy; and afterglow and remembrance. Each section includes twenty or more poems. She includes the poetry of Marge Piercy, Anne Sexton, Sharon Olds, and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, as well as dozens of lesser-known poets.

Maltz says that "my goal in creating Intimate Kisses is to provide an erotic, yet sensitive, collection of poems that describe sexual pleasure based on intimacy." Readers will enjoy discovering that she met her goal.

I went into the bookstore looking for a book to share with my current lover, and finally after spending an hour staring at the shelves found this little gem. The book is perfect, because it contains a wide variety of enriching language on the subject of love and sex... which is what I was seeking to share with my signfigant other. But it is also perfect because it makes one aware through reading that the common conceptions of sex that we see in mass media are so very dull compared to the variety present in this small volume. I think I'm going to drop a copy of this wrapped up discretely and anonomously on an over-sexed male co-worker's desk. The book is also perfect as a gift to man who hasn't grown out of his teenage (and porn industry soaked) ideas of sex. If he can spend some time reading it, it might blow his mind (and change his life). Why? Because this is a book that profoundly expresses that the best love and sex come out of the kind of intimacy that's pretty tough to find in a one-night stand.

In this work, the reader finds an incomparable poetic voice, distilled to its best and resounding at the most basic, unseen, human level of experience. Benedetti aims for, and makes contact with, that part of the human self which is often not able to be conveyed in words, not apparent or obvious, but which is essential to experiencing and interpreting the meaning of human experience itself.

This Uruguayan poet's aesthetics are unique and explorative, given to stripping away the unnecessary obstructions of visual grammar, and using the exchange between space and text as a rhythmic and lyrical guide to the reader. Here, the poetic activity is found in its essence, and many, who ably read Spanish, will find their own internal or poetic voice being newly inspired by the stunning breadth and penetration of the work compiled in this volume.

Reunir toda la poesia de Benedetti es una idea genial. Así uno puede disfrutar de todos sus poemas sin salir de un libro y conocer algunos menos afortunados en popularidad pero igualde buenas. Benedetti es un agasajo para los ojos, para la razon, el intelecto y el corazón. Nada puede decirse que sea no sobre de un libro tan completo y exelso como este.

if you consider yourself a poetry lover, you got to read bennedetti. he's a poet unlike others, he writes with passion, and lets you know that he still bealive that love is par of poetry.

la poesia de m. benedetti es la expresión de pensamiento profundo a través del lenguaje sencillo. con las obras de esta antología m. benedetti construye ventanas en su corazon por las que los lectores podemos mirar, luego construye puertas por las que podemos entrar y como nos sentimos a gusto volvemos una y otra vez.

Mario Benedetti, es sin duda alguna uno de los mejores analistas poetas de la vida humana Latinoamericana de nuestra epoca. Es la pasion y amor hacia la realidad de nuestros pueblos,de nuestra gente! es la vision del amor que se traduce en poesia.