Reviews of Bargaining with the Fall by:
AND
Serena Augusto-Cox at Savvy Verse & Wit (https://savvyverseandwit.com/category/review)
Please read this wonderfully thoughtful review of Everything Is Normal Here by Kristin Kowalski Ferragut: “…Straddling spheres between spirit and body, subconscious and experiential, Alison confronts nightmares and things of which nightmares are made of — storms, blood, teeth — in an exploration of reach to build profound connection. Her poems don’t blink. Her unique voice offers readers an entry-point to better understand struggle on a fundamental, human, and personal level. A book well-worth reading and re-reading…”
Full review: https://www.kristinskiferragut.com/post/verse-to-be-thankful-for-four-short-poetry-book-reviews
Please take some time to peruse this dynamic review of Everything Is Normal Here by Serena Augusto-Cox in Savvy Verse & Wit: “…Loving oneself is the hardest gift we can earn. It’s a struggle with the external pressures of society, our partners, our families, and it is the internal struggle with our own demons and who we think we should be. Don’t we all need a little rescuing? … “We wouldn’t hear the wind if not for the trees; on each limb a collection of/crackles like embers. My mind, not entirely safe inside its bone house.//” (“Overtaken”, pg. 29) are among some of my favorite lines. The beauty of Everything Is Normal Here by Alison Palmer is in the cracks between the lines. RATING: Cinquain
Full Review: https://savvyverseandwit.com/2022/12/everything-is-normal-here-by-alison-palmer.html
The Poet’s Billow interview: https://thepoetsbillow.org/2018/10/07/interview-with-alison-palmer/
Praise for Everything Is Normal Here from Alessandra Lynch:
Inside this unusual book is a beautiful series of fireflies—rapturous, urgent, always-surprising, longing as they flash their signal-lights for connection, against numbness, against a world which bans love...“Blazes, in gifts of heat lightning; electrical thoughts.”
Palmer’s restless, original poetry (“I’m a means to those small creatures that curl within. / They kindle, bloom darkly below my surface.”) reveals a deep mind inside private loss… Hers is an oft-tender, sometimes-vexed song.
I love Palmer’s vivid rhythms: “the one-man-band licks /wires of her hair “as well as her ongoing sense of wonder: “What the river’s for I’ve no answer. / If you swallow enough water, you’ll regain your gills.”
I find solace and sustenance in Palmer’s imagination: “Oh, to find buttony eyes and the fastening language of wings.”
Thank goodness for this poet’s nuanced understanding of love--its fragility and resilience.
Thank goodness for Palmer’s fertile music, that bright essential hope. “We know that beneath the meadow is another meadow”—.
