Challenge and Ambition: Rose Solari Releases new Poetry Reviews for WIRoB
Rose Solari's reviews this month focus on four collections that "challenge and stretch the reader’s expectations in terms of content, form, or both."
Rose Solari's reviews this month concern books that "challenge and stretch the reader’s expectations in terms of content, form, or both." This includes Charlotte Pence's vitalizing Code with its centerfold poem written entirely in DNA, Kelvin Corcoran's The Republic of Song with its tributes to the scholar and poet Lee Harwood, Lauren Camp's soft poems based on visual artists of the 20th century in Took House, and the singular obsession with form presented in Peter Kline's Mirrorforms.
As always, Rose Solari writes with generosity and specificity when recounting the challenges and triumphs of each work. It is important also to note something unique to her reviews: her ear for the music of poetry. Solari never leaves the reader wanting for descriptions of concord and discord.
Rose Solari's is a monthly poetry review column for the Washington Independent Review of Books. You can find more of her reviews HERE.
Solari, while an excellent reviewer of poetry, is herself a regarded poet. Check out her work HERE.
Featured Audio: Rose Solari reads “The Beginning, 1939”
In “The Beginning, 1939” Rose Solari’s mastery of recitation is put to the music of her capricious mother and the frantic hopes of her father who wishes to leave “no long, tight pauses for her to fill.” I’ve written before about Rose’s use of swing and rhythmic motifs in her work, elements which are alive in this poem, but what is really mesmerizing to me about “1939” is the musical image toward the end which harbors no pretense of cramming lieder into language, but instead focuses on the very physical act of her mother playing the piano:
Mikaela Lefrak Examines the Life of Maryland Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri
The beloved Grace Cavalieri “contains multitudes” according to Mikaela Lefrak in her newest article from WAMU taking a look at the life and career of the 10th Poet Laureate. And Ms. Lefrak treats her subject with the due respect of a life which cannot be covered succinctly in 500 words. She delivers a reverent tourists’ view of Grace Cavalieri’s life, hitting the big things: her poetry and work ethic, the passing of her husband, Kenneth Flynn, her conversion to Buddhism, and finally her new tenure as Poet Laureate.
Listen to Grace Cavalieri on the Kojo Nnamdi Show
Grace Cavalieri’s recent stop at NPR’s The Kojo Nnamdi show is now streamable. Over a substantive 22 minutes, listen to Grace talk about poetry, inspiration, and her plans as the 10th Maryland Poet Laureate.