It Blows You Hollow
Diane Seuss

Nothing is solved by the end of this book, but much is gained as the quest itself has become a victory of perfectly pitched and furious language. God's still hidden away, but by now the natural world has evolved to replace the absence Seuss-Brakeman feels. In the book's erotically charged universe, one paradoxically begins to feel a calm settle over the burned-up panorama of the soul. It Blows You Hollow is a book, rare these days, that feels as if it had to be written. Diane Seuss-Brakeman goes for broke.

"Here's what I've been waiting for: Diane Seuss-Brakeman's fresh, deep-digging poems, the rich texture of detail and metaphor, and under the images ––exuberance, tenacity, loss. For me, the God poems offer a search, a wrestling as bold and intense as any since G. M. Hopkins. Each poem has its own voice––cajoling, taunting, despairing––but each calls out for some lively presence in the world: I want a direct God-hit,/no shrapnel. In other words, love,/I walk this dark minefield/searching for you."

        ––Conrad Hilberry

"It Blows You Hollow is Seuss-Brakeman's chronicle of edgy memories, private sorrows, charged darkness; of scarcities, plenitude and dangers. These sensual and irreverent poems erupt with unexpected turns of language at once elegant and fierce. Reading them made the back hairs of my neck bristle in recognition that real poetry is going on here. Hers is a gift of metaphoric daring and wit that dazzles and consoles with élan, vital and probing truth."

        ––Colette Inez

“Her poems consistently and accurately point, like magic compasses, to the familiar within the unfamiliar as well as the unfamiliar in the familiar.”

        ––Vince Gotera, North American Review

New Issues Poetry & Prose, Western Michigan University, Dept. of English,
1903 W. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5331
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