Customer Reviews

Blood Almanac

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Never having been to Iowa, I fear that going would only disappoint now that I have such incredible pictures in my mind. Would it pale by comparison? Some images dreary, some beautiful. In each poem Longhorn elicits a different set of emotions . . . concern . . . passion and an unconditional acceptance for the place that she calls home . . . It is all beautifully written. I look forward to her next work!

Sandy Longhorn in Blood Almanac invites us into the tall grass of the prairie. She shows us "corn stalks that tower above the farmers," the "order of the fields," and fathers who "walk with wrecked knees." She weaves together threads of family, self, and landscape in a spare yet pungent first collection of poetry. From the observation of creeks, storms, blackbirds, and the red wasp, Longhorn explores the rhythm of loss and longing. She is a true and worthy lyricist. A great book worth reading and reading again.

Sandy Longhorn's poems integrate the intimacy of individual experience with the story of a landscape where millions have toiled, laughed and loved--a combination sure to resonate with readers for years to come.

A wonderful debut collection, Sandy Longhorn's Blood Almanac explores the weather-driven lives of rural Iowans: The owners of drought-starved farms; the faithful survivors set down gently by the twister; the "I," driven, finally, a thousand miles away from a landscape that allows one to see too far. Through their attention to music, these poems transcend specificity and at the same time capture what is both great and treacherous about the plains. Every region has its own brand of storm dread, and Longhorn gets at the one she knows with such heat as to make her landscape belong to us all. One is left almost breathless by the melancholy beauty of Black Dirt Girls, an auspicious beginning for a new American poet.