"[
Shattered Sonnets
] breathes life into American verse . . . [an] urgent and unrepentant collection."—Rick Moody,
Poetry
"This convulsive book [
]—at times funny, at times sick at heart—refracts and defends a wondrous light."—Edward Hirsch
Olena Kalytiak Davis's
has earned "cult classic" status and is an unremittingly electrifying collection brimming with intelligence, humor, and ardor. Drawing on an impressive array of forebears including Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Sylvia Plath, Davis overhauls the sonnet and revitalizes the confessional style in poems that leave no convention unquestioned, no expectation unthwarted, no letter, spelling, or line break unconsidered.
From "sweet reader, flannelled and tulled":
You are cold. You are sick. You are silly.
Forgive me, kind Reader, forgive me, I had not intended to step this quickly this far back. Reader, we had a quiet wedding: he&I, theparson
&theclerk. Would I could, stead-fast, gracilefacile Reader! Last,
good Reader, tarry with me, jessa-mine Reader. Dar-
(jee)ling, bide! Bide, Reader, tired, and stay, stay, stray Reader,
true. R.: I had been secretly hoping this would turn into a love poem. Disconsolate. Illiterate. Reader,
I have cleared this space for you, for you, for you.
Olena Kalyiak Davis
is the author of three books of poetry and currently works as a lawyer in Anchorage, Alaska.