For a woman who's won quite a few rough & tumble Poetry Slams, Amy Sparks writes a surprisingly quiet and introspective poetry filled with delicate imagery. Her subjects, however, are often less than delicate. From her "Brownsville, Texas": "A woman wakes before dawn hearing a coarse wind blowing through her womb. The sun stuns the pavement. The river takes its trash, tail between legs, to the sea." Among the best work here is "Histories," a set of prose poems about a trip through Europe. Here Sparks builds dreamy scenarios with simple declarative sentences. From "Malaga": "Lie and listen to a language you cannot speak. The stories are intricate and loud. They mean nothing. Your tongue is unmoved. But your ears are wound tight as metal coils." Fine work.--Thomas Willoch
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #4,
Contact the editor, luigi-bob drake, at Burning Press
Copyright Burning Press 1994, 1995.