Buoyant

Rebekah Bloyd takes us on a wide-ranging hydrological journey: her words-solid fluid vaporous-traversing a 'globe without axis.' She invites us into a liquid suspension inspired by science paintings photographs and her own personal history. Unexpected connections link grounded detail-desert quail Caribbean parrot fish a plastic toy diver Venus reflecting through smoky air-with ethereal explorations of childhood wonder human longing and silly joy. Like her wild Santa Cruz mountain turkeys wandering a canyon Bloyd's poems draw our rapt attention.-Ellen Orleans author of Inside The World Is Orange and Mother Blue & The Deep Down UnderTo read this radiant collection is to dive right into the waters of our shared planet Earth. Whether responding to the behavior of water the epidemic of gun violence or a social media text Bloyd examines the spiritual energies that both connect and separate us from the natural world and from one another. Filled with compassion and mystery Buoyant is a multilingual conversation that ultimately leaves the reader transformed hopeful and delighted to have taken the plunge.--Caroline Goodwin author of Madrigals and Old Snow White SunFrom the first poem's kinetic opening 'a field of children roars/into a seascape/swimming perpendicular' to the last poem's poignant ending 'Handsome her hand on the world/burst/open/of its own accord' the reader encounters precise surprising imagery and form. Buoyant entwines stark truths about our planet and our lives what we have lost-species habitats lovers family-with joy at what we still have. A haibun about the devastating Dixie Fire in California offers 'In the fine dirt of the campground's ring road ... bird tracks loose-mesh patterns stamped.' In this beautiful haunting collection 'our planet is wide/as earth eggs soil grubs caterpillar beetle ... wide as cricket pulse/under night skies satellite saturated.'--Judith Serin author of Gravity and Hiding in the World