"Love in these sensuous poems is both heady and difficult. What I love most: the humor, the passion, the seriousness beneath--and the glow of the poet's incandescent heart." --Patricia Fargnoli --Lana Hechtman Ayers' first chapbook collection, "Love is a Weed," relationships take on several guises that range from "an onion" to a time clock to a wacky roadtrip gone wrong. The opening poem, Easy As Pie, pulled me instantly into this 28-page adventure. There's almost a call-and-response between the epigraph (where poet Kim Addonizio contemplates "how many hungers there are") and the poem, which deliciously list love as being displayed in revolving glass "showrooms. Reminiscent of British poet Carol Ann Duffy, are Ayers' persona poems in the voices of women from Greek myths, such as the rebellious Persephone who takes Hades offer to rule the underworld, and a sassy Eurydice who upon liberation from her attention-starved hubby is now "a solo act" with plans. Women from other fairytales also pop-up in this collection. The way Ayers portrays them, they appear to have a hint of "Desperate Housewives" syndrome. Just a bunch of young, married gals looking for a good time no matter how wild or costly. In Fairy Tale Affair, love is the carriage Cinderella rides around in after slipping herself into the "glass-sleek" body of her dream man. Atlas' Wife, fed up with being left at home with nothing to do, becomes a "mistress" to the rain. Not every woman in this collection are carelessly daring. Ayers also paints the portrait of those defeated, such as the has-been head cheerleader in the poem, Diner Waitress: ... Now there are frying pans under her eyes, her shoulder blades jut out of her back like bony handles to the double doors of her spine. Open her up, and you'd find nothing but grizzle. For more information on the writer, ;In Lana Hechtman Ayers' first chapbook collection, "Love is a Weed," relationships take on several guises that range from "an onion" to a time clock to a wacky roadtrip gone wrong. The opening poem, Easy As Pie, pulled me instantly into this 28-page adventure. There's almost a call-and-response between the epigraph (where poet Kim Addonizio contemplates "how many hungers there are") and the poem, which deliciously list love as being displayed in revolving glass "showrooms. Reminiscent of British poet Carol Ann Duffy, are Ayers' persona poems in the voices of women from Greek myths, such as the rebellious Persephone who takes Hades offer to rule the underworld, and a sassy Eurydice who upon liberation from her attention-starved hubby is now "a solo act" with plans. Women from other fairytales also pop-up in this collection. The way Ayers portrays them, they appear to have a hint of "Desperate Housewives" syndrome. Just a bunch of young, married gals looking for a good time no matter how wild or costly. In Fairy Tale Affair, love is the carriage Cinderella rides around in after slipping herself into the "glass-sleek" body of her dream man. Atlas' Wife, fed up with being left at home with nothing to do, becomes a "mistress" to the rain. Not every woman in this collection are carelessly daring. Ayers also paints the portrait of those defeated, such as the has-been head cheerleader in the poem, Diner Waitress: ... Now there are frying pans under her eyes, her shoulder blades jut out of her back like bony handles to the double doors of her spine. Open her up, and you'd find nothing but grizzle. --blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=41125208&blogID=232360771&MyToken=2cd5ce9a-57db-494c-9ac3-8ed9c871b4cc
"Love in these sensuous poems is both heady and difficult. What I love most: the humor, the passion, the seriousness beneath--and the glow of the poet's incandescent heart." --Patricia Fargnoli --http://lanaayers.com/publications.aspx
In Lana Hechtman Ayers' first chapbook collection, "Love is a Weed," relationships take on several guises that range from "an onion" to a time clock to a wacky roadtrip gone wrong. The opening poem, Easy As Pie, pulled me instantly into this 28-page adventure. There's almost a call-and-response between the epigraph (where poet Kim Addonizio contemplates "how many hungers there are") and the poem, which deliciously list love as being displayed in revolving glass "showrooms. Reminiscent of British poet Carol Ann Duffy, are Ayers' persona poems in the voices of women from Greek myths, such as the rebellious Persephone who takes Hades offer to rule the underworld, and a sassy Eurydice who upon liberation from her attention-starved hubby is now "a solo act" with plans. Women from other fairytales also pop-up in this collection. The way Ayers portrays them, they appear to have a hint of "Desperate Housewives" syndrome. Just a bunch of young, married gals looking for a good time no matter how wild or costly. In Fairy Tale Affair, love is the carriage Cinderella rides around in after slipping herself into the "glass-sleek" body of her dream man. Atlas' Wife, fed up with being left at home with nothing to do, becomes a "mistress" to the rain. Not every woman in this collection are carelessly daring. Ayers also paints the portrait of those defeated, such as the has-been head cheerleader in the poem, Diner Waitress: ... Now there are frying pans under her eyes, her shoulder blades jut out of her back like bony handles to the double doors of her spine. Open her up, and you'd find nothing but grizzle. For more information on the writer, visit her here at LanaAyers dot com. --http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=41125208&blogID=232360771&MyToken=2cd5ce9a-57db-494c-9ac3-8ed9c871b4cc
Lana Hechtman Ayers lives in Kirkland, WA where she is a manuscript consultant, workshop facilitator, and publishes the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Series. She holds an MFA in Poetry from New England College. A Pushcart nominee, her poems appear in such journals as Poetica, Rhino, and Feminist Studies Quarterly. Her first book, Dance From Inside My Bones, won the Violet Reed Haas Award and was just published this month.
