xterminal's review
5.0
Mary Biddinger, Saint Monica (Black Lawrence Press, 2011)
I'm writing this early in 2012, so I can say it with confidence: Saint Monica was the single best book I read in 2011 (final count: 272, with this being the third of those books to get five stars), not only living up to but surpassing the promise of Prairie Fever. From first page (“The owls would like to unwrap//her, as owls do, always looking/for the next loose shutter, the goldfinch/bathing in a pile of spilled parmesan//in the convenience store parking lot.”) to last (“They lived in Michigan,//where nothing ever changed. But when/would the pint glass shatter in her hand,/just like the woman on the screen, limp/ponytail snaking around her shoulders?”), this is poetry that tries, and not once fails, to surprise and delight with unexpected imagery, spot-on word choice, and a gaze that never leaves the bigger picture even when it's focused on the smallest image. I quoted that goldfinch image on facebook right after I read it, saying “I had to remember how to breathe.” There's a great deal of that to be found in this book, which should be on the shelf of not only every reader of poetry, but every reader period. *****
I'm writing this early in 2012, so I can say it with confidence: Saint Monica was the single best book I read in 2011 (final count: 272, with this being the third of those books to get five stars), not only living up to but surpassing the promise of Prairie Fever. From first page (“The owls would like to unwrap//her, as owls do, always looking/for the next loose shutter, the goldfinch/bathing in a pile of spilled parmesan//in the convenience store parking lot.”) to last (“They lived in Michigan,//where nothing ever changed. But when/would the pint glass shatter in her hand,/just like the woman on the screen, limp/ponytail snaking around her shoulders?”), this is poetry that tries, and not once fails, to surprise and delight with unexpected imagery, spot-on word choice, and a gaze that never leaves the bigger picture even when it's focused on the smallest image. I quoted that goldfinch image on facebook right after I read it, saying “I had to remember how to breathe.” There's a great deal of that to be found in this book, which should be on the shelf of not only every reader of poetry, but every reader period. *****
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