A review by amyotheramy
Isn't Forever by Amy Key

4.0

I wish I had invented the woman
(Yves Saint Laurent)

Never confuse aesthetic ghosts with the people you love.
Betrayal fades, loneliness is eternal. I am no longer concerned
with beauty, but with physical strength. Physical strength
is an unworn sensation. Over the years I have learned to create
a scandal -- terrible joy, a heaven of tranquilizers. I wish I had
known the indulgence of close contact with life; the encounter
of day for night. I have hunted down the false friendship
of the sun, sober. I emerged from solitude with many things,
spectacular concepts, all out of breath. The sea an extraordinary
denim. It's a love story of everything I didn't have.

If you are craving a sonnet, this will not be the book for you. This is all free verse, collage poems and the like. It admittedly indulges in some of free verse's worst indiscretions. (The very first poem in the book is printed in a perfect block of text with slashes where the line breaks should be. I glared at it very sternly and was relieved to find that that particular shenanigan was not often repeated.) And there are some very uneven works here. I want you to be aware of that. That said? I love what I love. You have but to say, "Betrayal fades. Loneliness is eternal" once, poem, and I am yours. There are many such moments, many such poems. This one is a keeper.