Reviews
of Ocean Avenue
______________________________________________________________________
"Like a modern-day Whitman the poet loiters at her ease, in her case, among
the crowds of Grand Central Station 'a little ecstatic/from looking up at the
constellations / in the green and gold ceiling.' Listening 'to the skinny violinist
play Paganini' she stands still, letting the music touch her and feels 'the
whole station inside' her awareness. Thus it is also a book of enormous calm;
indeed, I cannot think of another collection of contemporary poetry more conscious
of our need for the violence of continual change and more at peace in the center
of that violence. . .This is poetry whose aim is no less than to recall us to
what Wallace Stevens regarded as the greatest gift of creation: to live in a
physical universe."
Philip Levine
"Malena Mörling's
poems lend new perspectives about what it is to see and hear and wonder, about
what it is to be alive."
Michael Burkard
"Mörling is deeply aware of the moment of 'passing through' and it
informs her poetry. Ocean Avenue is subtle, lovely, and original."
Gerald Stern