A Leaf Called Socrates

The interplay of the written word and the painted image converge in Ann Holmes' skillfully crafted poetry. Holmes gets inside the action of a poem imagining what it is like to be the atomic bomb in Hiroshima a goat in Greece spring beginning acloud refusing to change its form. Love loss wonder and the quirkiness of life leap off the page.<p><i>How rich a palette poet-artist Ann Holmes' brings to her second collection A Leaf Called Socrates. How powerful is her artist pen as she approaches biblical and ancient figures as intimates. I glaze a Bosch bubble/around Adam and Eve/so they may stay in the garden. With engines of irony and honesty her poem When I knew creates a loving reproach to intimate family encounters. Her poems revealing human frailties glow nonetheless with color and affection. After her sojourn as an artist in Japan she evokes a place where 'Seven round holes/one above the other/exist as if the moon/ dropped out/ ofthe sky. In this new collection of poetry her language phrase and imagery paint emotional hues to reveal people in their flaws and creative gifts.</i><br>-Lou Barrett author of <i>Connecting Flights Doors Gates</i> and <i>Portals Clotheslines</i>