POETRY

Squander

by Elena Karina Byrne
Omnidawn. Oct. 2016. 96p. ISBN 9781632430229. pap. $17.95. POETRY
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If flesh (or any worldly thing) could be made word, it would be by Pushcart Prize winner Byrne. "Beget-began with the rain in velvet swags," she says of downpour, while fire is "flame-hooded in city snow—/ who sulfurs, suffers for it." And she makes ideas real and touchable, too: "Now/ consider the cement chair and know/ instead periphery" says the poem titled "Idea." Byrne opens with a meditation on language ("because hunger once ate/ in a Feast of Lanterns, light caught in the mouth./ Babel: traders and navigators"), showing it at its protean finest, as her own poems are: sparkling, luminous, richly packed, and a real tumble into another state of mind.
VERDICT From Shakespeare and stars to Rilke and lust, Byrne incarnates a wealth of subjects for smart, committed readers.
Reviewed by Barbara Hoffert , Oct 15, 2016
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