Customer Reviews

Split Verse : Poems to Heal Your Heart

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Separation and divorce are things that touch everyone and need to be talked about. Whether you are a child of divorced parents, or simply suffering from a break-up, even if you are happy and in love these poems cover the full spectrum of emotions involved. Each section speaks to a particular place in your soul and yet inspires you to remember the strength of the whole. At once funny and clever, or wry and difficult, they are beautifully written and collected. You will be glad you picked it up.

Split Verse, a collection of poems about divorce, voices the range of human emotion on this subject, and this voice at times lifts to keening and lulls to a growl. Buy this book for the chilling recognition of the unspoken distance underpinning a marriage in William Duke's "The Best Sex" and the flash of violence in Nita Penfold's "Her Daughter's Future Wedding": "All she can think about/is being in the same room/as her ex-husband./The knives on the table." From rants to quiet reflections, bursts of hope to the inertia of resignation, Split Verse is a sincere and powerful collection, a heartfelt respite from the anesthesia of these ironic days. The last words of the last poem in this collection, "The Way to Survive Divorce," by Meg Campbell, are an apt description of what each of these poets is doing: "Unveiling her heart with her hands." Beautifully done.

Often "theme" anthologies end up too small in their focus and their reach. While SPLIT VERSE certainly concentrates on divorce, the poems are true to any experience of loss, devastation or betrayal. William Duke's erotic masterpiece "The Best Sex" bites you with its final judgement. Nita Penfold's recurring narrator reminds you of a favorite wise aunt, long since recovered from a bad choice. These poets aren't bitter but one can tell they spent some time there. SPLIT VERSE will surprise you every time you open it. Enjoy!

I know this book has gotten a lot of buzz so I was eager to read it, having earlier read SOLO CROSSING. I found SPLIT VERSE profoundly moving.....and I'm a bachelor!

Read the book right through. A wonderful assortment which covers the gamut, expected and unexpected. By turns, the poems are moving, sad, funny, moving--as many aspects of divorce as there are aspects of marriage--and life. I particularly liked the poems by both editors--obviously the perfect pair to choose the others. A collection one can trust for anyone who has survived the incredibly complex experience or simply wishes to understand it better.

Split Verse is the finest collection of serious poetry I've seen in a long time. The layout of the book is clean and each section contains poetry on a different aspect of the subject, allowing the reader to choose what they'd like to see and the sequence. When reading a book on a topic that is none too happy, it's a pleasure to be able to move around the subject, yet still get the feeling of a unified theme at work. It's also especially exciting to see new work from New York writers like David Mark Speer, whose piece, "At Least Half the Man My Father Was," is probably the most heartfelt, wry and touching poem in the book. Overall, the editors did a great job and I can't wait to see what's next. If you're interested in serious literature about a sometimes tragic yet fully human topic, Split Verse is the book for you.