Beautiful in the Mouth

June 15, 2010

In her debut collection, winner of the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize, Kuipers untangles the interwoven discourse between life's richness and barrenness, its fullness and hollowness. Daily experiences fuel her poems, providing lavish, sensual images rife with exuberant details. Though the concise language sometimes becomes sentimental--"no one/ was coming to give me what I/ needed, but I lay down and waited/ anyway"--the poet ultimately turns what seems to be a standard prose line into true poetry by adding a twist or creating a sudden paradox. Nature plays a vital role in these poems, dictating even their internal music and fluctuation: "I let them chase me into the woods/ dead leaves fly like sparks under my heel." And though many poems are autobiographical, there's a skillful braiding of the personal with the impersonal, the real with the unreal. VERDICT This book introduces an original and promising voice that will be a joy for all curious poetry readers.--Sadiq Alkoriji, South Regional Lib., Broward Cty., FL

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