Sylph by Abigail Cloud
Our friends over at American Microreviews & Interviews recently took a look at Abigail Cloud’s newest collection of poems Sylph:
“Abigail Cloud’s Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize winning debut Sylph conjures demons-of-everyday-annoyances (i.e. demons of broken jars, lost wedding rings, needle pricks, and choked peppermints), angels who go on benders, Ginger Rogers and her stylist, women from classical ballet, and spirits of the air. While putting all these characters together appears to be a stretch, Cloud writes with a sense of purpose that assures us by the end of the collection these figures’ interconnectedness will be revealed.
In the meantime, we revel in the lushness of her language, the power of her images, as in “Snapped Key Demon,” which opens:
You knew it the second
the brass scraped into the lock,
teeth bucking the groove
and the involuntary twist
of the wrist a new disaster.
A sharp clap and the heart
comes away in your hand.
Cloud’s poems have texture. Their sounds alternate between euphony and cacophony. They carry weight even with their simple diction and linger long after the page is turned…”
Read the rest of the review at American Microreviews & Interviews