Happy poetry month! My friend Lisa Cooper published this book last November and I am so excited to share it with you. She is a phenomenal poet, and I am amazed at the number of forms she can write in. I have read a couple of her poems in the past, which can be found here, here, and here. But in reading her book, I had the opportunity to appreciate all that she can write. I can see how she enjoys and excels at writing deep, meaningful poetry, delving into emotions that perhaps she never experienced yet captures perfectly while embracing the challenge of a strict form to create something beautiful. While I do not love every form she chose to use, I did love so much of her work. I found that her sonnets and villanelles were among my favorites. I always struggled with the villanelle, so some of my appreciation is definitely awe! And if you are just branching into the world of poetry, Lisa included an afterword that explains each of her chosen poetic forms for each poem. I found this helpful as I didn’t recognize every form, and I think I might now try my hand at some of them. These poems range not only in form and style but also in topic, including those on life, death, memory, scripture, and nature, so there is a little bit of something in here for everyone. My favorites were those that touched on memory and nature. But, I enjoyed the breadth of subjects in this collection.

If you’re looking for a wonderful book of poetry to read this month and would like to support recently published authors, I highly encourage you to pick up your own copy of Hasty Corporeal Ink by Lisa Cooper. You won’t be disappointed.

Blessings to you and yours,

~Madelyn Rose Craig