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Reviewed by Carol Barrett Coming Down the Mountain by Gary Lark Kelsay Books, 2024, 103 pages, $23.00 ISBN 978-1-63980-652-2 Available at https://kelsaybooks.com; https://garylark.work Gary Lark is an Oregon poet through and through. Born here, and raised in the Umpqua Valley of Southern Oregon, he now lives in Grants Pass. Coming Down the Mountain, Lark’s latest […]

Reviewed by John Ruff Raku by Patricia Wixon, edited by Vincent Wixon and Amy Miller Cyclone Press, 2024, 73 pages, $15 ISBN 9798340757456 Available on Amazon   Raku, Patricia Wixon’s fifth book of poems, was unfinished when she died at her home in Ashland, Oregon, this past July after a prolonged illness. Just days prior

Reviewed by Lana Hectman Ayers I Remember Not Sleeping by Sherri Levine (author), Moises Camacho (Illustrator) Fernwood Press, 2024, 64 pages, $28 ISBN 978-1594981395 Available at https://www.fernwoodpress.com/2024/08/05/i-remember-not-sleeping/ and sherrilevine.com   A hybrid of poem, memoir, literary quotes, and graphic novel, I Remember Not Sleeping is an extraordinary collaboration between Oregon poet Sherri Levine and Mexico-born

Reviewed by Cynthia Neely The Autobiography of Rain by Lana Hechtman Ayers Fernwood Press (an imprint of Barclay Press), 2024, 134 pages, $19 ISBN 978-1594981388 Available at https://barclaypress.corecommerce.com/the-autobiography-of-rain.html     Lana Hechtman Ayers, in the The Autobiography of Rain, her sixth collection of poetry, claims not to be a painter. To a point, I gently disagree. A large

Reviewed by Cit Ananda  ekphrastics & eccentricities by M. Ann Reed Kelsay Books, 2023, 63 pages, $20.00 ISBN 978-1-63980-400-9 Available at www.kelsaybooks.com   On her trek teaching and learning around the world, capturing moments in disparate places such as Wales, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, China, Idaho and Minnesota, M. Ann Reed unveils, through art and idiosyncratic occasions,

Reviewed by John Martin Reading Wind by Carol Barrett The Poetry Box, 2024, 49 pages, $14.00 ISBN 978-1-956285-51-2 https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/reading-wind   So many of the poems that I read these days––including my own––are looking for their reason to be, trying to figure out what and why they are, hoping to make some meaning through the act

Reviewed by Dale Champlin Jacob’s Ladder by Rachel Barton Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2024, $18.00 ISBN 978-1-59948-992-6 Available at https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/jacobs-ladder-rachel-barton/   The poetry in Rachel Barton’s latest book, Jacob’s Ladder, takes the reader, rung-by-rung, up into a not-so-everyday world of wonder. It’s as if the poet views even the most mundane as an opportunity

Reviewed by Carol Barrett The Ferry Keeper  by Judith H. Montgomery Grayson Books, 2024, 43 pages, $12.00 ISBN 979-8-9888186-9-4 Available at https://graysonbooks.com Judith H. Montgomery’s latest collection, The Ferry Keeper, opens with a stunning metaphor that enlightens the entire volume. The poet’s body becomes a ferry transporting loved ones to the other side of this

Reviewed by Ce Rosenow Noble Scratch, Roughly Spoken by Brad Winter and Laura Winter As If Press, 2024, 60 pages Limited edition: 150 copies numbered Order from the authors at [email protected]. Finally! That was my response when I learned Brad and Laura were collaborating on a book. I’ve known the Winters since the mid-90s, and