Would-Land

As the title of this gorgeous collection suggests Would-Land is an adventure in wordplay and the discoveries of our heart- and hearth-truths that language (in its inevitable slippage) can reveal. And the slips of both language and self are whats at stake here. Oscillating between elegiac and epigrammatic Essbaums poems share at once the ecstasies of sound and syncopation of a modern-day Gerard Manley Hopkins and the acerbic insights of a more sensuous Dorothy Parker with a little of Emily Dickinsons taut ferocity for the sublime thrown in. Love loss coupling uncoupling coupleting incompleting faith forgiveness-all of this and more is explored in these poems which are both gut-wrenching in their candor and lavish in their language. I am an unrepentant fan.
-Rebecca Lindenberg Love An Index