The Wind, Master Cherry, the Wind

“Few writers, seasoned or new, strike so fine a balance between complexity in contemplation and sheer pleasure in articulation….Szporluk has a virtuoso’s ear, and, even in depicting a scene of destruction or mortification, she manages to entice her reader further with rich alliteration, assonance, and internal rhyme.” —<em>American Book Review</em> “Szporluk’s compellingly slippery third volume includes sharp wit, linguistic subtleties, and an ambitious seriousness…” —<em>Publishers Weekly</em> “Most of the poems have a surreal, often nightmarish quality, as suggested by their titles (‘Fragile Little Serpent Stars’ or ‘Cricket Magnificat,’ for instance), which offer collage-like subliminal messages that tease and thereby engage.” —<em>Library Journal</em> “Larissa Szporluk bears nonlinear witness to the suffering and wonderment of what-is. Her poems—sardonic-ravishing, edgey-gentle things—infuse mythology with a bitter erotics, or excavate the sinister aspects of the Pinocchio story. As to language—well, she works it. The oddity and finery of lyric poetry, its head-spinning pleasures and sublime responsibilities, are freshly realized in this thrilling book.” —Alice Fulton “Mark Strand describes Edward Hopper’s work as being informed by two imperatives one that urges us to continue and the other that compels us to stay. Such is the experience of reading <em>The Wind, Master Cherry, The Wind</em>, Larissa Szporluk’s demanding and brilliant new book: we are both urged forward and held back by its mysterious intellection. Szporluk’s work is about meaning: what can be known and what cannot be, what can be divulged and what must be withheld. The Wind, Master Cherry, The Wind is fraught with such taut pleasures. This is poetry both luscious and rigorous.” —Lynn Emanuel