The ghost of Dorothy Parker must have whispered to Dian Duchin Reed in some of these poems. Other poems hum contemplatively. Throughout them all Reed’s “praying for pleasure to grow / or digging out the weed of pain.” There’s a wildness to her poems and a determination to sing the whole theatre of song.
—Patrice Vecchione, author of Writing and the Spiritual Life: Finding Your Voice by Looking Within and a volume of poems, Territory of Wind
Everyday insight, wise humor, musical concision, depth with ease: these are the qualities you’ll find here. You’ll see them in single lines and in whole poems. If you are a poetry reader, take pleasure.
—Dr. T. C. Marshall, poet and teacher
Blending mythology with modern angst, these poems dance through time and space with dizzying speed. Playful, yet often deeply serious as well, the poems take us to unexpected places and present us with life’s small miracles. “The poem suddenly turns / up a street you never noticed on the map before” seems a perfect description of what is happening in every poem in this sparkling collection.
—Barbara Bloom, author of On the Water Meridian
from the book: Medusa Discovers Styling Gel
Extreme hold, yes!,
time to tame
those snaky tresses
now that she’s got
her head on straight
again and, adding
Vogue and Cosmo
to the cart, maybe
rethink her approach
to men. They can’t all
be gods, she supposes,
reaching for the blue
shadow, brown mascara
that she’ll use to
soften her icy eyes.
Her last relationship
was a disaster,
he wanted women
with less ambition,
more distress.
After he left, her
dead skin began to
split and shed. Next
she heads for the body
lotions, which also
claim to work miracles.