In Winterproof, Jennifer Reeser continues to develop and strengthen her considerable art, so impressive in her previous collection. Writing most of the time within the confines of traditional form, she nevertheless delivers fresh surprises and rewards. Her poems of nature, of love and marriage aren't like anyone else's; they shine with insight and unfamiliar truth. Her rhymes are intrinsic, never decorative -- a sign of high skill. This is a book to buy two copies of -- one to cherish, one to give to a friend who loves fine poetry.
-- X.J. Kennedy
Although she has learned that "no craft on earth is master to despair," Jennifer Reeser's Winterproof is not a despairing collection. It is a veritable garden of verses, cultivated with confident forms from sapphics to sonnets and a few wilder varieties. Among the many poems that strike me are "Water and Cherry," "Had Bonnie Blue Survived To Bury Rhett," and "The Neighborhood." This is a measured voice gaining new authority, and, as she writes in her lovely "Nocturne Over Water," "Nothing illumines longing more."
-- David Mason |
