Review by Booklist Review
Novey returns to poetry after several novels, including Take What You Need (2023), with a collection about perception and interpretation. Each poem builds on the next, moving toward a seeing that relies on trust of self, feelings, and the peculiar. "Nearly" lists short phrases gesturing toward crisis, "As the oil spilled. / While your retina bled. / While the woman at the shelter." Each phrase increases the sense of impending (or past) trouble, creating a familiar human tension. "Still Life with Invisible Canoe" explores the liminal, "We are rowing in a blue that is a feeling mostly." With this, we understand that this work offers unconventional assumptions of time and space and bends expectations. The reader trusts the poet's telling, which is deployed with care and deliberateness. Novey leads us through fables, lyrics, and epistolary addresses that evoke urgency but always with the steady hand of a hypervigilant sage. In "Dear friends," she asks, "But what can a poet in a borrowed house really offer in a spreading fire?" For a start, she has offered this inventive and surprising book.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
