Customer Reviews

Sky=Empty (New Issues Poetry & Prose)

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I just got this book and couldn't stop reading it--the poems remind me of what I love about the best poetry: they are completely original without trying to be cute or cliche, and they have such a spare and distinctive syntax and style of blending and comparing things that they almost teach readers a new language of their own. It's so mysterious and engaging how these poems run narrative and emotion through a high wire act of languages (Judy writes in English, is from Canada, lived in the US, and now in Japan) in a search for meaning--so that both her poems with explicit translations in them, and her poems about simply being a child in Halifax, all stretch and walk looking for the words to pin things down. As Marvin Bell says on the back cover (it was a prize winner, he was the judge), this is a book that people will want to buy a second copy to give to a friend. Everyone who loves distinctive voices in contemporary poetry should have this book.

These beautifully written poems were wondeful to read. I found my own feelings so often in them. I understand that in Japanese sky means empty. Such a haunting sort of comparison that can mean so much. I recommend this book to anyone either a poetry reader or writer who wants to feel quite moved and who wants to see a new side of life. I look for more from this young poet.