Reviewed by John Vardon Ever since my mother died almost two years ago, memories of her surface into consciousness at all times of the day, evoked by events and objects both trivial and significant. I suspect that the same process was at work as the motivation and impetus for most of the poems in Alyda…

Wind on the Heath: new and selected poems by Naomi Beth Wakan Shanti Arts Publishing, Brunswick, Maine 2020 Softcover, 219 pages, ISBN 978-1-951651-55-8 $18.95 USD www.shantiarts.com Plato said, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’.  The poems in Wind on the Heath are all about the examined life. Naomi Wakan, essayist, psychotherapist and poet laureate…

Reviewed by Sandra Stephenson Here is a little book I read with a haiku mind.  A haiga mind, really, as the pages are accompanied liberally with photos by the author, of her near-year in China teaching English.  Stationed in Jiaxing, The longer poems at the beginning of the book are signature de Belle:  sound rounds,…

Reviewed by Kim Fahner This review was originally published by Prairie Fire, Jan 28, 2020.  In the title poem of her newest collection, This White Nest, Frances Boyle poses the question “What shines?” This is the question that sits with the reader as they make their way through the poems, but others soon weave their way in,…