Customer Reviews

What It Wasn't

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I was really impressed by "What It Wasn't," the poetry collection by Laura Kasischke. The author has a vivid literary voice. Her poems are often nightmarish, sensual, and/or surreal; the book is full of bizarre, unsettling imagery. Her preoccupation with death is reminiscent of the work of Poe.

Here are some samples of her vision. "The moon tonight is red as something / too sweet and full of female screams to eat" (from "Andy's Lanes & Lounge"). "How skinny the Cornish hen / appears in the oven. / A plucked, baked, feminine / fist" (from "Woman in a Girdle"). In another poem she describes the moon as "a blind blue infant face" ("My Heart"). Also remarkable is the title poem, which recalls a paranormal encounter with a fantastic bird. Although I didn't always find the poems totally coherent, Kasischke's voice is consistently compelling, and this book is definitely worth reading.