The Aurorean Editors Present: A Selection of Favorites from the first fifteen years

The Aurorean Editors Present: A Selection of Favorites from the Frst Fifteen Years

Encircle Publications 2012

ISBN 13: 978-1-893035-14-0

www.encirclepub.com/store/product/favorites


Review by Irene Koronas



'Favorites' is a golden soft cover perfect bound book of poets

from their collection from the past fifteen years, which says

to me the reader that the selection of poets has been care-

fully chosen from the many fine poems that have graced

the pages of this fine journal.



There are almost one hundred poems and seventy one

contributors. In the introduction the reader learns how

this journal got its start in the world of small press. The

journal's, 'Favorites' starts with a poem by Lillis Palmer:



“Observe this

evidence of faith,

the gardener

kneeling on her piece

of earth,

spading the soil with

blistered

hands, breathing

the humus-sweet

cold air;...”



And the Aurorean editors, Cynthia Brackett-Vincent & Devin

McGuire, choose to complete the book with Robert M Chute:



“I've never found an arrowhead,

one flinty chip of history.

Young Thoreau, they said, if he walked by

some farmer's fresh plowed field, could just

stoop down and pick up one...”



Between these two poems, there are an array, verse depicting

season, meditations, and New England. Each section flowers

and wanes, crashes onto our consciousness, and sleeps in our bellies.

The book itself illumines our senses with tones ranging from new

gold to old gold. Here Cathy Edgett spills the last drops into words:



“ I drank grief like tea in Tibet,

Holding the cup with both hands,

Steam a womb,

I drank,

Water trickled down rocks,

Ochered in gold,

To the sea.”



There are poems from morning, from each horizon

as it shows itself, just as in a poem by Martha Boss:



“It's so quiet

you can hear

sun working the flowers,

glory opening up the morning,

days from here & there



becoming hybrid

and time wondering

what time is.



It's so quiet

you can almost hear

your mood changing

into a loud outfit.”



These poems are cut long stem roses and worth the price

of the entry. The perfect gift for friends and lovers.

Jim Barton's poem:



“where

heated words

storm out

to sit and cool

then float

(at peace)

back home”





Irene Koronas

Reviewer: Ibettson Street Press

Poetry Editor: Wilderness House Literary Review