Strange Valentine

“Like many first collections concerned with the broad categories body and place, Strange Valentine carries a sense of urgency: these poems had to be written. But unlike many urgent-feeling first books, the language in these poems is playful and interesting. A vernacular sensibility traces back to the locations the poems depict—trailer parks, bedrooms, hospital rooms, church—and there finds the sources of a fierce love. Common as its content and vocabulary may be, these poems are not merely plain-spoken narratives; they tell it straight and slant, they pucker, cuss, pause for a smoke, cut loose, then close down or open up. They come at you like a country song, layered with cockiness, longing, raw sweetness, heartache, and just plain heart. Unafraid to go over the top or to dig deep, they are honest without being too earnest.”—Julia Kasdorf, author of Eve’s Striptease